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RESPONSES 



ON THE USE OF 



TOBACCO. 



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BY THE ^ 

REV. BENJAMIN INGERSOL LANE, 

AUTHOR OF THE "MYSTERIES OF TOBACCO." ETC. 



NEW-YORK 

WILEY AND PUTNAM, 1G1 RROADWAY. 



1846. 







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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, 

BY BENJAMIN I. LANE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, 
for the Southern District of New-York. 






Stereotyped by J. R. Winser 
138 Fulton-street. 






"» \^»>"V>. ■» A. . » S-»».»* 



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CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction, 3 

Dedication, 17 

Lecture before the Brooklyn Institute, ... 19 
Responses on the Use of Tobacco. 

I. — Letter from Amatus Robbins, M. D., . 47 
II. — Letter from the Hon. Judge A. J. Parker, 61 
III.— Letter from the Hon. Mitchell Sandford, . 66 
IV.— Letter from the Rev. S. Miller, D.D., . 72 
V.— Letter from Charles A. Lee, M.D., . . 78 
VI. — Letter from Arad Joy, Esq., ... 82 
VIL— Letter from Moses Long. M.D., , . 85 
VIII. — Letter from Frederic Morgan, M.D., . 91 
IX.— Extract of a Letter from William Hooker, M.D.. 95 
X.— Letter from E. C. Delavan, Esq., . . 97 
XL— Letter from the Hon. H. J. Redfield, . 99 
XII.— Letter from Moses Taggort, Esq., . 102 
XIII.— Letter from Holton Gauson, M.D., . . 104 
XIV. — Letter from Rev. L. Mercereau, . . 107 
XV.— Letter from Joseph Speed, M.D., . . 109 
XVI.— Letter from Rev. Robert Allyn, . . 112 
XVII.— Letter from Rev. J. Holdich, D.D., . 114 
XVIIL— Letter from Rev. Albert Barnes, . . 117 
XIX.— Letter from Rev. Joseph Hurlburt, . 120 
XX.— Letter from Rev- William Wisner, D.D., . 122 
XXL— Letter from Rev. Leonard Woods, D.D., . 126 
XXIL— Letter from Thomas W. Blatchford, M.D., 131 
XXIII. — Letter from a Member of the American So- 
ciety of Dental Surgeons, . . 140 
XXIV.— Letter from Rev. Henry White, D.D., . 143 
XXV.— Letter from Rev. N. S. S. Beman, D.D., . 147 



INTRODUCTION. 



What ! another volume on Tobacco ! Why 
not? If we have taken a correct view of the 
subject, its nature and wide-spread evils are such 
as to justify the publication not only of a second, 
but of a third and fourth volume. It is neither so 
pleasant, nor profitable in a pecuniary point of 
view, that we give it the preference to other topics. 
But, fully believing that mankind are suffering 
incalculable ills from its use, conscious of our 
weakness and of the power of the enemy, we 
have attempted their rescue. How far we shall 
have effected it, remains to be seen. We should 
rejoice to see some abler pen than ours do more 
ample justice to the subject. The reasons which 
have urged us forward to the expense and labor we 
have bestowed on this subject, have arisen from 
our personal experience of its very sad and mourn- 
ful effects ; and, growing out of this, a benevolent 
desire to benefit those who are inflicting upon 
1* 



1 INTRODUCTION. 

themselves the same miseries. The writer used 
tobacco for more than twenty-five years, some of 
the time moderately, and some of the time exces- 
sively ; never, however, did he approach in his 
use of it, to the quantity which many consume. 
It would require a small volume of itself to de- 
scribe the various ills, and disagreeable feelings, 
which, to him, resulted from the practice. It 
might be sufficient to say, that, in very much of 
what he has written, he has spoken from expe- 
rience. Often, very often, when a subject has 
opened to him with great clearness, and thrilling 
interest, has every thought been clouded by the 
fumes of a regalia. He has been compelled to 
wait for nature to recruit before he could employ 
his pen. In speaking extemporaneously, he has 
often experienced a sudden confusion of thought, 
and embarrassment, which he has been able to 
trace to the use of tobacco. This did not occur 
in the first years of his using it, nor has he expe- 
rienced it, in any considerable measure, since he 
has quit the practice. It affected his heart to 
such a degree, that he was seriously afraid it was 
the seat of organic disease. In the precordial 
region he often felt a sense of sinking, and bv 



INTRODUCTION. O 

applying his hand to his pulse he perceived it in- 
termit at every sensation of sinking, or giving 
way. When lying on his left side, the heart 
would sometimes suddenly dilate, with such power 
as to make him nearly spring from the bed. For 
several years before quitting the use, his nights 
were generally disturbed. His sleep was broken. 
It seldom came so sweetly as to appear " balmy" 
in its approach, and as a restorer of weary nature. 
The disease termed incubus so often came upon 
him as an armed man, that he dreaded to enter 
its province. He seldom experienced the plea- 
sure of an appetite for food, though he often ate 
heartily, as the want of food caused a sense of 
illness and debility. For a considerable portion 
of the time he was afflicted with an inflammation 
of the throat, and was obliged to have recourse to 
some remedy for relief. Except in the warmest 
weather, he experienced a painful sensation of 
coldness in his feet. For twenty years before he 
quit the use of tobacco, he abandoned all use of 
ardent spirits except as a medicine, and at a very 
early period after the temperance reform began 
its march of life and health, he enlisted in its 
ranks. Most generally, however, once and some- 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

times twice a year the state of his health was such 
as to require some stimulus, which was accord- 
ingly procured, and produced a favorable medici- 
nal effect. The system was so reduced bythe nar- 
cotic, and, in various ways, exhausting influence 
of tobacco, as to render some stimulus absolutely 
necessary to restore it. He is acquainted with 
many other strong temperance men, if a user of 
tobacco can be called such, who find an imperious 
necessity for the same remedy. But he must 
stop the detail of ills. It is sufficient to say that 
since quitting the use of tobacco he has been 
nearly free from all the maladies above specified, 
and many others. He is now satisfied that they 
were the legitimate product of tobacco. 

While he was in the habit of using the article 
in question, he was, like others in the same prac- 
tice, very unwilling to believe that it injured him ; 
although occasionally under suffering, he had 
strong convictions that tobacco was the cause. 
A severe attack of pulmonary disease, attended 
with many disagreeable nervous symptoms, and 
the earnest request of his physician, who had 
frequently pointed out its deleterious influence, 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

finally brought him to a fixed determination to 
quit its use forever. He immediately began to 
recover his health with unprecedented rapidity, — 
his sleep became sweet — his appetite restored — 
and the numerous train of nervous diseases with 
which he had been afflicted disappeared, in pro- 
portion, as, in point of time, he distanced the 
space between him, and the vile narcotic, which 
had so long held him in bondage. Restored now 
to health, his physician, in connection with a 
clerical friend, very urgently solicited him to write 
on the subject of tobacco. It is to their sugges- 
tion and solicitation, very much, that the writer is 
indebted, and the public, for whatever good, if any, 
may result from his labors. And he would here 
express his obligation to his very esteemed medi- 
cal friend for many valuable hints respecting the 
work, as well as for his letters accompanying this, 
and the former volume. He would likewise take 
this opportunity of making his acknowledgments, 
and returning his thanks to those other gentlemen 
whose valuable contributions go to make up the 
practical interest of both volumes. He would 
make his special acknowledgments to those medi- 
cal gentlemen, who have frankly and benevo- 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

lently communicated their experience and obser- 
vation ; — benevolently, because, in this case, their 
acts are in opposition to their present pecuniary 
interest, for tobacco is unquestionably a greater 
source of those ills which give profitable employ- 
ment to physicians than any thing else. He would 
also very cordially return his thanks to all those 
other gentlemen who have answered his circular* 
and whose letters are not herein published. Very 
many have returned a brief affirmative or nega- 
tive to his questions : and some have acknow- 
ledged that they have no experience and have 
made no observation on the subject. With a 
single exception, however, all have returned answer 
that they sincerely believe that tobacco injures 
the health, and shortens the life of those who use it. 

Very few, it will be perceived, are prepared to 
testify that they have witnessed instances of death 
evidently resulting from the use of tobacco. This 
is as we expected. Our object, in the enquiry, 
was to call attention to the subject, as well as to 
obtain facts from those who had them. Very kw 
have turned their attention to the subject of 
tobacco. A great portion of the community use 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

it, and are groaning under the ills that it inflicts. 
Though u slays its thousands annually, the fact of 
its doing so is known to but few. It hurls its 
dart in secret. If a man drops down dead, no- 
body suspects that tobacco has done the deed. 
It is said he died of apoplexy, or a disease of 
the heart, or the rupture of a blood vessel. And 
some one of these maladies may have been the 
proximate cause of his death, but probably tobacco 
was the cause of the malady. It is a fact well 
known to the best medical writers, that all these 
complaints are induced by the use of this article ; 
and when, from a careful investigation, this sub- 
ject comes to be well understood, we have little 
doubt that four-fifths of such deaths will be laid 
to the charge of tobacco. So in other cases, the 
man has died of consumption, of colic, or of some 
other disease of which he would not have died, 
at that time, had he not been a user of tobacco. 
Time was when it was thought that but few died 
by the use of alcoholic drinks. We have heard 
of many, who, some thirty years ago died of 
delirium tremens, and it was not thought that 
ardent spirits had caused their death. The dis- 
ease was called by another name. Few, even of 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

physicians, were aware of the multiform miseries 
and diseases occasioned by their use. They 
were too much under the influence of alcohol 
themselves to understand it. But now it is un- 
derstood. Community have been aroused. The 
subject has been examined, and laid open to the 
light of day. We hope that the nature and in- 
fluences of tobacco will one day be as clearly 
understood. When some sterling men break its 
bands asunder, and obtain their freedom, and 
make the necessary efforts and sacrifices to obtain 
information and gather facts, the work will be done, 
and community will be startled at their former 
ignorance, and the dreadful ravages of the foe. 
We are fully persuaded that all that is necessary 
to give this subject the importance it deserves, 
and to convince the most incredulous, is for some 
individuals of influence to bestir themselves, to 
investigate the subject, and collect and give 
forth, to the world some few of the existing 
facts in relation to it. We know of many in- 
dividuals who have suffered amazingly from the 
use of tobacco — some w4o themselves believe 
that they have experienced a touch of delirium 
tremens from its use — who are unwilling to speak 



INTRODUCTION. 1 J 

out on the subject. This delicacy, we trust, will 
ultimately be removed, and men will be as wil- 
ling, from motives of benevolence, to testify in re- 
lation to the deleterious influence of tobacco, as 
they are in relation to the deleterious influence of 
alcohol. 

When will the friends of temperance awake to 
this subject ? By many, our positions are treated 
as groundless, and our zeal as madness. This is 
so for a reason similar to that which led many to 
look upon the first temperance reformers as be- 
side themselves. We sincerely rejoice at every 
effort to promote the cause of entire abstinence 
from alcoholic drinks ; but at the present stage of 
the temperance cause, we look upon the time and 
money employed to extend it, as nearly thrown 
away, while tobacco is left to do its work of ruin. 
We are fully persuaded, and we venture even to 
predict, let it be remembered, that we shall ad- 
vance but little beyond the point now gained, until 
we direct the resources of the temperance army 
against this insidious, skulking, undermining, and, 
withal, powerful foe. Of this, any intelligent, ob- 
serving temperance man may be convinced, who 
2 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

will candidly examine the nature and influence of 
tobacco. We earnestly entreat such to take time 
for it, and do it. 

The progress of desolation in the use of to- 
bacco, is as strongly marked as in the use of alco- 
hol. Its foot-prints are as plainly visible to those 
who know them, and they all bear a straightfor- 
ward direction to the grave. Nature holds out 
her signs of distress and pleads for relief. Often 
do we hear the complaints of its victims, and 
though we are fully aware, they are not, of the 
cause of their sufferings. They kiss the hand 
that holds the dagger to their hearts. That these 
kindly warnings may be understood, we will 
briefly notice the effects of tobacco in the several 
stages of its progress from health to sickness, and 
from life to death. In the first stage of it, after 
toleration is established, and nature is whipt into 
subjection, the man feels better than ordinary ; he 
is exhilarated ; for a time he is happier ; it may 
be for months, and in some instances, even years, 
he has a greater amount of animal enjoyment. 
He thinks that tobacco is doing him good. This 
is one of its illusions — one of its mysteries. In 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

the second stage of progress, the appetite is di- 
minished and unsteady, — sore mouth is occasion- 
ally experienced, which is laid to the charge of 
copperas or some poisonous ingredient mixed with 
the tobacco. The tobacco itself is not suspected 
as being the cause. The course of his enjoyment 
and tranquillity is more frequently interrupted. In 
the third stage of progress he is dyspeptic ; the 
mind is also affected — the spirits sink — the man 
is often complaining of the " blues" or the " hy- 
po." He often passes sleepless nights. He 
feels timid. His power of self-possession and 
his resolution is impaired. He begins to com- 
plain of sore throat ; and his breath is as an open 
sepulchre. In the fourth stage, the citadel of life 
is entered ; — the man complains of a sense of sink- 
ing in the precordial region — has palpitation of 
the heart — thinks he has organic disease, and his 
physician likewise is often deceived. He is af- 
flicted with hemorrhoids — more frequently trou- 
bled with catarrhs, and coughs, and spitting of 
blood, and colic, and vertigo. He is often trou- 
bled with the heart-burn, and has constantly to 
have recourse to some remedy for relief from his 
dyspeptic symptoms. Life begins to be a burden. 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

In the fifth stage, he begins to think that tobacco, 
perhaps, is injuring him, and he tries to leave it 
off, but cannot. All his maladies are increased. 
He has symptoms of approaching palsy and apo- 
plexy. The whole nervous system is unstrung, 
and not unfrequently delirium tremens nearly re- 
sembling that occasioned by alcohol, is experi- 
enced. Life is bereft of nearly all its comforts ; 
and some painful sickness, or, what is a very 
common termination of the above series of 
symptoms and diseases, sudden death closes the 
scene. 

Such is the path usually trodden by the victims 
of tobacco. We do not pretend to have marked 
it out with very great definiteness, nor could we 
do it, in the brief space, which it would be pro- 
per to occupy on the subject, in this place. The 
symptoms of no two men, perhaps, are exactly 
alike, and the disagreeable feelings and ills occa- 
sioned by it are exceedingly numerous. But as 
a miniature view, the above will be found a tole- 
rably correct delineation of the pathway of the 
lovers and slaves of tobacco. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

An important object which we have had in 
view in this volume, has been to " establish every 
word" of the positions taken in the " Mysteries of 
Tobacco," by the mouth of the most respectable 
and credible witnesses. Having done so, we sub- 
mit the whole to the examination and judgment of 
the public ; and we have no doubt, if those whom 
it especially concerns will be persuaded by what 
we have presented in these volumes, to abandon 
the use of tobacco, " the blessings of many ready 
to perish" will come upon us. We close with re- 
questing those who have important facts on this 
subject, relating to their own personal experience, 
or that of others, to communicate the same to us. 
Benjamin I. Lane. 

West Troy, April, 1846. 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE HONORABLE THE OFFICERS, TOGETHER WITH THE 

MEMBERS OF 

THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE, 

AUGUSTUS GRAHAM, ESQ, PRESIDENT ; ROBERT NICHOLS, ESQ., 
VICE-PRESIDENT ', CHARLES M. OLCOTT, ESQ., TREA- 
SURER J HENRY G. NICHOLS, ESQ., SECRETARY J 
AND 
MESSRS. WALTERS, WOODCOCK, CROWELL, PARTRIDGE, 
CONGDON, MORGAN, SMITH, CLARK, AND 
ARCULARIUS, DIRECTORS, 
THIS EECTURE, 
ON THE DELETERIOUS EFFECTS OF 

TOBACCO, 

DELIVERED IN THEIR PRESENCE, AND BY THEIR REQUEST, 

ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 5, 1856, 

IN THE HOPE OF MORE ENLARGED USEFULNESS 

RESULTING FROM ITS PUBLICATION IN THE PRESENT FORM, 

AND COMMENDED 

TO THEIR CONTINUED FAVORABLE NOTICE AND REGARD, 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED AND INSCRIBED, 

BY THEIR FRIEND AND FELLOW SERVANT, 

IN THE GREAT CAUSE OF BENEFICENCE TO MANKIND, 

AND ESPECIALLY 

TO THE YOUTH OF OUR BELOVED COUNTRY, 

BENJAMIN INGERSOL LANE. 



LECTURE 

BEFORE 

THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 



It is not a condition on which the laws of 
human society enforce obedience, that they be 
known and appreciated. A man may not know 
the existence of law, he may unwittingly trans- 
gress, yet if he do so, he must pay the forfeit. 
So it is with the physiological laws of our nature. 
The forthcoming penalty is never arrested by the 
fact that we transgressed in ignorance. The pen- 
alty is the effect of an appropriate cause. These 
laws are as indelibly engraven upon our nature as 
was the moral law upon tables of stone, and the 
language obey and be blessed, transgress and suffer, 
is as stern and imperative in the one case, as in 
the other. Though they are as unchangeable as 
the laws of the Medes and Persians, they are, 
however, in no instance arbitrary. It is in the 
nature of fire to burn, of arsenic to corrode, and 
of tobacco to stupefy. Nor are the laws by which 



20 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

our life and health are maintained, obscurely re- 
vealed, or difficult to be understood. Until we 
become hardened in disobedience, or until nature 
is vitiated, there is no difficulty in ascertaining 
when we have taken food sufficient ; and nature 
is offended, and begs, in language plain to be 
understood, not to have thrust upon her those 
things which are hurtful. In no instance has 
nature willingly taken the first draught of alcohol, 
or the first portion of tobacco. This point may 
be disputed, because some children have mani- 
fested a liking for one or the other of these arti- 
cles at a very early period. But we must go 
back to the first instance, if we would know the 
liking of unvitiated nature. Then, as some per- 
sons commence their existence with hereditary 
disease, we see not why some may not commence 
their existence with vitiated appetites. 

That tobacco is a poison, none who have given 
a thought to the subject will dispute. It is, or- 
dinarily, slow in its operation, and many years 
pass away before its fearful ravages are discover- 
able. Yet if the trial were to be made, by which 
article, arsenic or tobacco, life could be extin- 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 21 

guished the soonest, we doubt not the result would 
be in favor of tobacco. Tobacco goes at once to 
the sensorial power; and repeated doses would 
palsy it with an electric influence, while arsenic 
has first to inflame and corrode, and must, if the 
expression be allowable, travel much further to 
accomplish the work of death. 

As tobacco operates particularly and directly 
upon the nervous system, it may be well to glance 
at its delicate and widely extended influence. Of 
this, however, little comparatively, is known. He 
who shall communicate as perfect a knowledge of 
the nervous system as we now have of the vascu- 
lar, will erect an imperishable monument to his 
fame. No discovery in medical science can be 
more important. We say not that no star has 
shed any light upon the subject; but no sun has 
arisen. On this point we see as with a dim twi- 
light. We have little if anything like demonstra- 
tion. What we call the substance of the nerves 
is the same medullary matter which constitutes the 
brain and spinal marrow. They are conducted 
in a thin and highly organized sheath and are 
spread in very fine branches, variously connected 



22 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

with each other, over the whole animal frame. 
But of the nervous fluid, which is the life of the 
system, little is known, either of its nature, or the 
manner in which it is formed, and transmitted 
through the system. The medullary substance 
diffused over the whole body is unquestionably 
the channel of its conveyance. 

' The various isolated, and, in part, heterogene- 
ous structures of which the body consists, which 
are mechanically joined by the cellular tissue, the 
membranes and ligaments, are united into one har- 
monious whole, by means of the nerves. The 
vascular system connects them only so far as it 
furnishes the supply of blood required for their 
support ; but it is properly the nervous system 
which imparts to all their life, governs their oper- 
ations, and establishes their sympathy and mutual 
action. The nervous fluid may therefore with pro- 
priety be regarded as the vital principle. Touch 
this, and you touch a chord which vibrates through 
the whole system. It is the telegraphic line of 
communication which nature has established to 
convey all sorts of knowledge to and from the 
centre of life and intelligence. 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 23 

From the wide diffusion and delicacy of the 
nerves, and their importance for the sustenance 
and even the existence of the system, we should 
learn the danger of wounding or impairing their 
energy. The health of the body, and the bril- 
liancy and vigor of the intellect are absolutely 
dependent upon their unimpaired energy. We 
may produce death by making war upon any of 
the various organs of the body, but it can be 
done in no way so quick as by assailing the 
nerves directly. The lightning's stroke would 
not sooner dismiss the spirit to its last reckoning 
than the oil of tobacco applied directly to the 
nerves. One drop of concentrated prussic acid 
applied to the eye will extinguish life in an in- 
stant, and, were the experiment tried, we have 
little doubt that the oil of tobacco would be as 
fatal. The virulence of the poison of tobacco 
shows itself in just the proportion that it finds its 
way into the system. Were it not for the de- 
fences of nature it would in almost all cases 
prove fatal. It so powerfully excites the salivary 
glands that nature washes away the poison which 
would otherwise prove as disastrous as the sting 
of an asp. Where it is swallowed, the stomach 
3 



24 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

and alimentary canal are excited in the same way, 
to prevent its being absorbed into the system. But 
lay it moistened upon the pit of the stomach, or 
any other part of the body where the nerves lie 
thick and exposed, and its fearful power to bring 
down the strong man will quickly be evinced even 
in the confirmed and inveterate user ; because, in 
this case, some small portion is taken into the 
system, there being no fountain of water, as in 
the salivary glands, to gush forth and dilute and 
wash the poison away. A clergyman of my ac- 
quaintance informed me the other day, that when 
he was a young man he was troubled with the 
rheumatism, as was supposed. The application 
of tobacco was recommended, and accordingly, 
a moistened leaf of the plant was applied to his 
arm. Presently he was convulsed, and soon he 
was thought to be dying. The family physician 
came, and on enquiry learned what was done. 
He ordered the tobacco to be removed, and 
some stimulating tonics to be administered, which 
after a few days restored him to his wonted health. 
But had not the tobacco been seasonably removed, 
he would unquestionably have died under its oper- 
ation. Is it then, we ask most seriouslv, is it wise 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 25 

or prudent to use as an article of luxury, a sub- 
stance, which, when brought into unavoidable 
contact with the nervous system, proves so viru- 
lent and fearful a poison ? And it ought not to 
be forgotten, that though nature defends herself 
against the deadly influence of tobacco, by pour- 
ing forth streams of saliva from the mouth and 
mucus from the nose, she is thus wasting her 
strength, and exhausting her resources, and like a 
besieged city, when her ammunition is expended, 
must at last yield to the enemy. 

That men, at times, appear to use it with im- 
punity, and many for a long term of years, is a 
circumstance which has given rise to more decep- 
tion in relation to tobacco than any other. For 
the same reasons, persons at some periods are 
enabled to endure a great amount of labor, and 
suffer astonishing exposures to heat and cold, 
and pass with impunity where pestilence, like the 
scythe of the mower, leaves only here and there 
a standing blade. It is owing to the vigorous 
state of the body, the strength of the nervous 
system in general, and the peculiar healthfulness 
and flow of the nervous fluid. But with no man 



26 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

is it always thus. Nature is not at all times thus 
vigorous and strong. The sensibility of the sys- 
tem and its liability to injury is very unequal. 
This is obvious to a very superficial observer. 
" We can pretty clearly perceive," says Cullen, 
" that the sensibility of persons is different at dif- 
ferent periods of life ; that it may be occasionally 
varied by the temperature of heat and cold, by 
the application of stimulant or narcotic powers, 
by the state of sleep or watching, and by some 
other conditions of the body." Again he says : 
" It seems evident that irritability and sensibility 
are not always in the same condition in the same 
person." When these are either too strong, or 
too feeble, the whole system is affected, and in no 
condition to endure or resist the evils it may live 
under, when its movements are vigorous, and 
unimpaired. Hence it is, that all tobacco con- 
sumers, who have given the least heed to its in- 
fluences, have observed, that it affects them very 
differently at different times, and there are sea- 
sons when they are obliged greatly to moderate 
their dose, or lay it aside altogether. Its taste 
and impression are different. Nature sinks under 
it, and protests its offensiveness and detriment 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 27 

But the man will not give it up. Never did a 
Roman yield his household gods with half the 
reluctance. With more than a martyr's devotion 
he presses it, and puts his whole soul in the apos- 
trophe : 

" Plant divine of rarest virtue, 
Blisters on the tongue would hurt you — 
'Twas but in a sort I blam'd thee : 
None e'er prosper'd who defam'd thee." 

He tries it again, but nature sickens and faints ; 
and he lays it aside. Again he tastes it, but his 
strength withers and his frame trembles ; and 
again he throws it aside, until nature, by a partial 
abstinence and the help of other means, acquires 
more strength : and then again even with more 
than inquisitorial cruelty, she is brought to the 
rack and dosed and drugged, (or smoked and 
quidded) until life is on the eve of departing. 
Cullen says, " On this subject it is to be remark- 
ed that the power of habit is often unequal ; so 
that in persons accustomed to the use of tobacco 
a lesser quantity than what they had been accus- 
tomed to, will often have stronger effects than 
had before commonly appeared. I knew a lady 
3* 



28 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

who had been for more than twenty years accus- 
tomed to take snuff, and that at every time of day : 
but she came at length to observe that snuffing a 
good deal before dinner took away her appetite : 
she finally noticed that a single pinch taken any 
time before dinner took away, almost entirely, 
her appetite for that meal." This and numer- 
ous other cases show very clearly that although 
tobacco may appear for a long time to be used 
with impunity, it is constantly, though insensibly, 
doing its work of ruin. To all constitutions, 
however strong, unless there is some inflamma- 
tory, or other counteracting disease in the sys- 
tem, which it is fitted to hold at bay or subdue, 
it is like " a continual dropping, which will wear 
away a stone." Surely a very slight acquaint- 
ance with the nervous system, its delicacy and 
susceptibilities, the untold and unspeakable mise- 
ries which its derangement occasions, will make 
any one afraid to offend and wound it by the ap- 
plication of a narcotic, so powerful and destruc- 
tive as tobacco. 

The reason that multitudes dare to make a 
daily use of tobacco, is the same that urges the 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 29 

unthinking " horse when he dares rush into the 
battle" — he knoweth not that it is for his life. 
They never inquire as to its probable and final 
results. They are unwilling indeed to hear 
them, and if told them they will not believe. 
They will, if you please, believe their appetites 
rather than their judgment. 

The general effect of narcotics upon the hu- 
man system, is to diminish its strength and en- 
feeble all its motions and powers. As they are 
commonly remarkable for inducing sleep, they 
are often termed soporifics; and as their power 
may be extended to the destruction of the vital 
principle, they are very properly called poisons. 
The first effect of many of them is to increase 
the sensibility of the nerves, and their diminution 
or sedative influence is as the counter vibration 
of the pendulum. The system sinks in propor- 
tion as it was excited. Will any man believe, 
after appealing to his own understanding, that 
such an unnatural force can be long exerted with- 
out weakening and finally prostrating the nervous 
power? No elasticity but that of air can endure 
a constant pressure without injury. As narcotics 



30 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

operate directly upon the nerves, their influence 
is communicated directly to the sensorium, the 
head and fountain of vital influence, and conse- 
quently all the functions depending upon the 
energy of the brain are impaired by their contin- 
ued use. The vital functions also, are weaken- 
ed, and the frequency of their action diminished. 
It is a fact well known, by the few who have ob- 
served the operation of tobacco, that it more or 
less, sooner or later, affects the heart, and causes 
its pulsations to intermit. No doubt that in many 
instances it is the primary and only cause of that 
distressing complaint, the palpitation of the heart. 
In its first operation, it often increases the force 
and frequency of its action, and then its sedative 
character is manifest, in some instances, by caus- 
ing an alarming intermission of its pulsations. 
The heart seems to tire in its work, and gives 
alarming symptoms of ceasing to continue in 
play a system so clogged and burdened. The 
influence of narcotics in diminishing the activity 
of the sensorial power is also strikingly manifest 
in deranging the natural functions. The activity 
of the stomach, and other digestive organs, is 
always weakened by narcotics, in whatever way 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 31 

they maybe introduced into the system. Smok- 
ing or chewing tobacco may assist them for a 
while, by its cathartic property, but its continued 
use never fails to impair them. It is a most fruit- 
ful cause of dyspepsy, that multiform and distress- 
ing complaint. It is strange that this position 
should be discredited, because the moderate use 
of tobacco has in some instances relieved it. If 
the cardinal position of the homoeopathies be ad- 
mitted, that what will create disease will cure it, 
then the evidence that it has given relief in dys- 
pepsy ought to be sufficient to deter every man 
in health from its use. But so beguiling is to- 
bacco, and so inconsistent is the conduct of men 
in relation to it, that many of the firmest believers 
in homoeopathy are in the daily habit of using it. 
Yet the supposition that it can be done harmless- 
ly is an entire refutation of their whole system. 
For if a poison of such multifarious properties, 
can be used as a luxury, without injury, what be- 
comes of the philosophy of infinitesimal doses, 
and of the maxim " similia similibus curantur?" 
And what better is allopathy than hypocrisy, if a 
most powerful emetic, narcotic, diuretic and ca- 
thartic can be daily used without injury, by men 



32 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

in health ? Can any one hope that ordinary, or 
extraordinary doses of medicine will allay the 
power of disease, if one of the most powerful 
articles of the materia medica will not, by a con- 
stant use, arrest the vigor and health of the sys- 
tem ? In fact, the daily use of tobacco, without 
injury to the system, is the annihilation of all phil- 
osophy in relation to the diseases of the human 
system, and their cure. 

Another effect of narcotics in general, in relation 
to the natural fcmctions, is the diminution and final 
suspension of all secretions and of every excretion 
except that of perspiration. This, though not the 
immediate, is the remote effect of tobacco in a 
fearful measure. We have known many- habitual 
smokers, who found it difficult to produce a drop 
of saliva without the aid of tobacco. Hence the 
thin, withered, and sallow appearance of many 
users of the weed. What must be the ultimate 
condition of that constitution which is daily 
drugged for years by so powerful a narcotic ? 
It is certain that nearly all the diseases which 
afflict our race are either excited or aggravated 
by it. And indeed the slightest acquaintance 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 33 

with physiology must convince any man that the 
most serious consequences must follow. Yet 
with the knowledge of all this, men will continue 
the suicidal practice, and for the same reason, 
that with the grave before him, a man will drench 
himself with alcohol. 

If the practice of using tobacco is respectable, 
and conducive to health and happiness, as some 
seem willing to maintain, why do not those who 
are parents encourage their children to use it? 
They seldom do. Why not ? The fact is, 
there is a latent impression in the minds of its 
warmest friends unfavorable to it. They secretly 
wish they had never acquired the habit, and they 
are unwilling that their friends, and especially 
their children, should follow in their steps. No 
parent of any standing in society, but would be 
alarmed, should he see his child depositing a quid 
in his cheek, or making a chimney of his mouth, 
or titilating his nose with aromatic maccoboy. 
He would at once give him a lecture in such 
word and tone, as to make the young tyro feel 
that his father's heart was in the shaking of his 
finger. This evidences very clearly that thev 



34 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

are not honest in advocating its use. For if the 
practice neither produces disease, nor shortens 
life, and is a lawful source of enjoyment, why 
not invite their children to participate in it? 
'Tis proverbial tha # t parents know how to give 
good gifts unto their children. But should a 
parent be seen teaching his child the use of to- 
bacco, he would be regarded as a monster, and 
consumers of the weed themselves would turn 
from him with disgust. He would be regarded 
as endangering the life, health, happiness and 
morals of his child. An unfavorable impression 
is at once produced respecting the moral charac- 
ter of a child who is seen using tobacco. We 
connect with it an idea of coarseness and wicked 
daring, and seldom are we mistaken in thus 
judging. When commenced in very early life 
it usually stints the growth of both body and 
mind. In the only instance which we recollect 
of its being commenced in comparative baby- 
hood, the person at eighteen had the sallow and 
withered appearance of a little old man. 

But tobacco, it is said, is a real source of in- 
nocent enjoyment. We wish it were possible to 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 35 

disabuse the public mind of this strange decep- 
tion. There was a time when it would have 
been equally difficult to convince a large portion 
of community that good brandy or sparkling 
wine was not a pure source of elysian pleasure. 
That time we hope is past. The fields of plea- 
sure to which they convey are found to be on the 
descending scale, easy indeed, " facilis descensus 
averni," but many a poor fellow, in attempting the 
ascent, has exclaimed with anguish, " Hoc opus, 
hie labor est." If tobacco ministers to happiness, 
it must be, either from its taste, its inebriety, or the 
gratification of a habit. Does the taste of it af- 
ford pleasure ? No one is at first pleased with it, 
and even consumers of it, when it has been laid 
aside for a short time, find the taste rather un- 
pleasant on renewing its use. The taste is un- 
natural and forced, and he who has not vitiated 
his nature into a liking for it, realizes no unhap- 
piness from its absence. Indeed, his taste is more 
acute, refined, and sensible to the enjoyment of 
those fruits which God has made for our susten- 
ance and pleasure. Tobacco blunts the taste 
and prevents the full enjoyment of them. Is it 
the intoxicating quality of tobacco that ministers 
4 



36 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

to happiness ? That it is intoxicating is asserted 
by the best medical writers. Its effects are some- 
what different from those of alcohol. It does not 
trip a man, nor make " his soul as damned and 
black" as alcohol, though we fear it is among the 
causes which have made many a man " kick at 
heaven." It unfits the mind for the reception of 
truth, and weakens its power. Like other intox- 
icating agents, when used in moderation, it soothes 
the mind and produces a pleasing illusion. It stim- 
ulates and powerfully excites the nervous system, 
and when used to excess, produces some of the 
worst properties of intoxication, and finally issues, 
in many instances, in delirium tremens. Who 
wishes for the vacuity, and dreams of the inebri- 
ate, as a source of enjoyment? As much hap- 
pier as is a sober man than an inebriate, so much 
happier is he who has put his anathema upon to- 
bacco, than he who cherishes it as a friend. 'Tis 
useless to deny that tobacco is intoxicating. We 
can convict any user or abuser of the article of 
the truth of it out of his own mouth. Supposing 
a man were in the daily habit of smoking a bit of 
rattan, would he not be thought an odd genius ? 
Certainly, and those who first used tobacco were 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 37 

thought to be odd geniuses, and not to be tole- 
rated. Severe laws were enacted, and commu- 
nity put upon their guard against their blighting 
influence. Sir Walter Raleigh's servant, the 
first time he saw his master smoking, thought his 
head was on fire, and dashed a pot of beer in his 
face to put it out. Were we not so accustomed 
to see them we might think smokers a little too 
odd to belong to our species, and perhaps might 
come to the conclusion of the old lady, who for 
the first time saw a man smoking. She hastily 
withdrew from the house and told her next neigh- 
bor that the devil had entered her dwelling, for 
she saw him eating fire, and spitting out smoke. 
But to return, why would the man with the rat- 
tan be thought singular in his taste and habits ? 
Because no pleasure could result from it? But 
so far as the mere taste is concerned, we are con- 
fident that the frequent use might render it as 
pleasant as tobacco. Why then would you pre- 
fer a good cigar to a piece of rattan ? Because 
it produces a better feeling ? Ah ! that is it. It 
produces a better feeling. And what is that feel- 
ing ? Think of it, analyse it ; and say, can you 
define it by a better term than intoxication ? 



38 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

So far as the enjoyment arises from the gratify- 
ing a habit, we need only observe that when the 
habit is broken, there is no appetite to be grati- 
fied. After quitting the practice for a very few 
weeks, the disuse gives no uneasiness. To say 
nothing then of the many discomforts arising from 
the use of tobacco, we may safely aver that it af- 
fords no real enjoyment. The man is absolutely 
and certainly much happier without it than with 
it. On this point we are certainly very compe- 
tent to judge. We have used it moderately and 
immoderately, in all the variety of modes except 
plugging, and we have now for a considerable 
time abstained from it, and so much happier and 
better are we without it, that we fully believe the 
execrable article has deprived us of one half the 
happiness of our life. 

Never was there a greater mistake than that 
tobacco gives a ready and brilliant flow to the 
thoughts. Instead of being an intellectual prompt- 
er, it is an intellectual deceiver. It imparts no 
vigor or acumen to the intellect, but it abates the 
one, and blunts the other. The man may fancy 
himself soaring above the clouds, but they are 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 39 

clouds of smoke, and he has mistaken the fire of 
his cigar for suns and stars. With his feet on his 
table, on the same line of the horizon with his 
head, reclining in his easy arm-chair, he may 
feel enraptured with his own lofty conceptions. 
Closing one eye, and giving an upward glance 
with the other, as he pours forth the beautiful 
blue smoke, he feels himself gently ascending on 
its wreaths, to a more elevated region. His 
thoughts sparkle, and he is astonished at the vast- 
ness and glory of the field which is opening to 
him. Seizing his pen, he collects and treasures 
up some of his richest thoughts, and he sketches 
a map of the field for some future survey. But 
ah ! how changed is every thing when the influ- 
ence of the tobacco is gone. He finds, perhaps, 
his thoughts were good, but merely common- 
place : — the fumes of the tobacco having disap- 
peared, the gold has changed, and his most fine 
gold become dim. Nothing but a hazy mist is to 
be seen where was painted the beautiful colors of 
the rainbow. His sun went down when his pipe 
went out. We mean not to intimate that a man 
may not have some noble and brilliant thoughts 

under the exciting influence of tobacco. But 

4* 



40 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

we do say that no man can think so well and 
clearly for a term of years, with the use of to- 
bacco, as he can without it : and in many, if not 
most instances, his composition will not appear 
the same when the intoxication of his tobacco 
has left him, as when under its influence. That 
many of our fine poets and orators have com- 
posed amid clouds of smoke, has contributed 
very essentially to foster this delusion. It is for- 
gotten, however, that wine or some other alco- 
holic stimulant generally accompanied their to- 
bacco, and the beauty and melody of their song 
received as much inspiration from the one as 
from the other. It requires both, to take one 
from this mundane sphere, and place his feet on 
stars. But of these poets and orators, how often 
is the exclamation uttered with pain, " Ah ! how 
fallen !" Man was not made for a balloon. To 
us it is perfectly obvious that nature, kept strong 
and vigorous by obedience to the physiological 
laws of our constitution, will both physically and 
mentally perform the most noble and glorious 
exploits. 

The influence of tobacco seems to have been 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 41 

less observed than that of most other articles, by 
the majority of mankind. A certain result, in a 
specific case is taken as a general law of its na- 
ture in all cases. For example, because thin 
and lean persons have gained flesh on quitting its 
use, it has been thought necessary to keep the 
flesh of corpulent persons within the bounds of 
health and comfort. But in this respect tobacco 
is like alcohol. It is well known that while al- 
cohol renders some persons corpulent, and gives 
them a red face, it renders others lean and pale. 
In all cases tobacco is a poison, but it operates 
differently upon different constitutions. When 
obesity is a disease, tobacco may in some in- 
stances arrest it, and prevent its increase, while 
in other instances it may occasion it. This 
should not be thought strange, for tobacco is a 
powerful article of medicine, and its effects are 
according to the constitution to which it is ap- 
plied : just as quinine may weaken or strengthen, 
according to the state of the system when it is 
taken. We have known very fleshy persons 
leave the use of tobacco without increasing their 
weight, while their general health and comfort 
have been greatly improved. This is as might be 



42 LECTURE BEFORE THE 

expected. When tobacco has occasioned obe- 
sity, its disuse may take off some of the cumbrous 
flesh, and where it has occasioned leanness, its 
disuse may cause an increase of flesh. But in 
all cases the relinquishment, will, in a short 
period, give strength and vigor to the system ; 
except where the poison has been so long contin- 
ued as to sap the foundations of health and life. 
We do not believe, from the closest examination 
we have been able to make, that in any case to- 
bacco can be taken, for any considerable length 
of time, with impunity, unless it is in those cases 
where the system is diseased, and tobacco is 
adapted to its case. And here it should be re- 
membered, that in all other cases, except in the 
use of alcohol, men never think of continuing 
the medicine after a cure is effected. Medicine 
is always injurious to persons in health. 

That tobacco ever should come in such gene- 
ral use, is an enigma. It has no redeeming 
quality. Its aspect, taste, and odor are offensive. 
We may apply to it the words of the judges res- 
specting Desdemona's love to Othello, with a 
slight accommodation : 



BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. 43 



-" In spite of nature, 



Of virtue, cleanness, credit, every thing, 

To fall in love with what's so black and filthy ? 

It is a judgment maimed and most imperfect — 

That will confess — good breeding could so err 

Against all rules of nature : and must be driven 

To find out practxes of cunning hell, 

Why this should be." 



RESPONS ES 



ON 



THE USE OF TOBACCO 



The succeeding Letters, were received in an- 
swer to the following Circular. 

West Troy, Nov. 20, 1846. 

Sir: 

Being desirous of obtaining additional facts 
in relation to the effects of Tobacco on the hu- 
man system when used as a luxury, for publica- 
tion in a future edition of The Mysteries of 
Tobacco, I propose to you the following ques- 
tions : 

1. Have you witnessed any cases of disease 
evidently produced by the habitual use of to- 
bacco ? 



46 RESPONSES ON THE 

2. Have you had any personal experience of 
its effects? 

3. Have you witnessed any instances of death 
resulting from its use ? 

4. Do you think that its continued moderate 
use by a healthy person, shortens life ? 

A brief answer to the above, written and di- 
rected to me in the course of a few weeks, will 
be gratefully accepted and duly considered, by 
Your humble servant, 

B. I. Lane. 

It was our intention, when the above circular 
was issued, to give the result of our inquiries in 
an enlarged edition of the " Mysteries of Tobac- 
co." Various reasons, however, which will be 
obvious, and we hope satisfactory to the writers, 
have induced us to issue a separate volume. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 47 



LETTER FROM AMATUS ROBBINS, M. D. 

Troy, March 25, 1846. 

My dear Sir : 

In your renewed search for information rela- 
tive to the effects of tobacco on the human sys- 
tem, I trust I can appreciate your reasons for 
desiring a multitude of well authenticated facts. 
Many reflecting and reasonable men would, no 
doubt, be convinced and converted by a select 
and limited number of facts, and of candid 
opinions, given by men observant of the influ- 
ence of medicinal agents upon the human body. 
But there are many others of less reflection, who, 
when appetite and self-indulgence are opposed, 
require an array of facts innumerable, and abso- 
lute demonstration, before they will yield to the 
truth. Nor should we deem this strange, since 
even the best scholars are not always philosophi- 
cal observers of the effects of external agents 
upon their own minds and bodies. Hence, well 
defined and numerous cases of the disturbing and 



48 RESPONSES ON THE 

injurious effects of the use of tobacco upon the 
health of men, ought to be obtained, and kept 
before the public mind, until ignorance shall no 
longer be the plea of intelligent and honest men. 

With regard to the value of experimental 
proofs, I consider those as holding a high rank, 
in which individuals confess to its use, and relate 
in their own language, its obvious effects upon 
their own persons. But when, to banish as it 
were, all doubts of the correctness of their infer- 
ences as to the real cause of their sufferings, an 
entire troop of evil symptoms is removed by the 
disuse of the noxious article, this I call complete 
demonstration. Many cases of this sort are ob- 
tained, and I hope for the benefit of the numer- 
ous unbelievers, many more may yet be procured. 
As I consider it the duty of the Medical Faculty 
who are, or ought to be, the guardians of public 
health, to impart the knowledge they may gain 
from observation and experience, whilst in the 
service of the public, for the improvement of the 
health and happiness of their fellow-men, I will 
add several cases to those I have already com- 
municated in your first volume of the "Myste- 



USE OF TOBACCO. 49 

ries," as applicable to several of your interroga- 
tories. 

A friend of mine living in St. Lawrence coun- 
ty, states that for a few of the earlier years of his 
manhood, he chewed tobacco, not, as he thought, 
immoderately, (about three papers In a week,) 
until without any other evidence of muscular 
weakness, he found it impossible for him to stand 
erect, and fold his arms across his breast. After 
exhibiting this abatement of his manliness for a 
few years, he relinquished the use of tobacco ; 
and, strange to say, his palpitation at the heart, 
and fluttering sensations at the pit of the stomach 5 
with a host of other nervous symptoms, left him, 
and in a few weeks he could stand up like a man. 
He has since, for more than ten years, continued 
to enjoy perfect health, although I regret to add, 
that for the last five years, he has resumed the 
use of about half his former quantity of tobacco. 

About a year ago, a gentleman of this city 
called on me to prescribe for him while laboring 
under a great variety of nervous symptoms, which 



50 RESPONSES ON THE 

rendered him very unhappy. I recommended 
the use of some tonic, with a strict regimen, ad- 
vising him at the same time, to quit the use of 
tobacco. This I did, not imputing his symptoms 
to tobacco alone, but in order that I might obtain 
the indirect aid which the disuse of a constantly 
debilitating agent might afford in giving tone to 
the nervous system. After a few months, his 
health was apparently restored. Within the last 
three months, however, he having resumed the 
use of his tobacco, his nervous weakness has re- 
turned, and he has pledged himself to total absti- 
nence. 



A lady of a delicate nervous temperament, who 
has suffered many years with disease of the spin- 
al column, and with symptoms of nervous debi- 
lity, for w r hich I have often prescribed, has long 
been in the habit of taking snuff, which she 
thought did her no harm, as she was so temper- 
ate and neat in its use, as not to attract the at- 
tention of others to the habit. She was, at last, 
dissuaded from its use by her friends, and, in a 
very few weeks, she gained flesh and strength to 



USE OF TOBACCO. 51 

an uncommon degree, and enjoyed that freedom 
from nervous symptoms, and that degree of hap- 
piness from conscious health, to which she had 
for years been a stranger. 

To your second interrogatory, whether I have 
had any personal experience of the effects of to- 
bacco. I reply, I have never been in bondage to 
any narcotic. Although my own experience in 
relation to tobacco is not great, yet it is not, on 
that account, unimportant, as it led me to regard 
that drug as my great enemy. When I was a 
young man, I essayed, like many others, to ac- 
quire this fashionable accomplishment, but my 
system was unable to endure the necessary train- 
ing. After many trials of the pipe and cigar, my 
stomach continued to revolt, and I at last came 
to the belief that my constitution was one of 
those that could never be brought to endure the 
habitual use of tobacco. A brother of mine, 
whose temperament was too much like my own, 
succeeded in acquiring the habit of chewing, but 
I think greatly to his injury, for he subsequently 
suffered, for more than ten years, with dyspepsia 



52 RESPONSES ON THE 

in an aggravated form, accompanied with fre- 
quent attacks of haemoptysis, until, in an obstin- 
ate attack of hemorrhage, he died. 

In the absence of facts to form a direct answer 
to your third question, I submit a few cases of 
sudden collapse induced by the medicinal or 
empirical use of tobacco. These may tend to 
show the highly poisonous qualities of this drug, 
and the prevalent ignorance on this subject, which, 
considering its very common use, is truly sur- 
prising. 

An infant child of one of my patrons in this 
city being affected with flatulence to such a de- 
gree as to produce distressing colic, a neighbor- 
ing lady being present advised the administration 
of an injection consisting merely of warm water, 
through which tobacco smoke had been blown 
from the stem of a pipe. Without apprehending 
any dangerous results from a remedy so appa- 
rently simple, the mother of the child followed 
the prescription. In a moment, the child turned 
pale, the extremities grew cold, and symptoms 



USE OF TOBACCO. 53 

indicative of convulsions supervened. By the 
immediate application of restoratives, however, 
the child was saved from sudden death. 



The following case was communicated to me 
by my partner in business, many years ago. 

In a village a few miles distant from this, was 
a child suffering under a severe attack of colic. 
After the usual remedies had been applied in 
vain, the physician ordered a small quantity of 
the infusion of tobacco of the strength usually 
employed, to be thrown up the bowels, as the 
last resort. In about three minutes, the child 
sank into a collapsed state, and died. 

An acquaintance of mine informs me that 
when a boy, he was made acquainted with the 
potency of this drug by following the advice of a 
Jack Tar ; which was, to apply a strong infusion 
of it to his body for the cure of an eruptive dis- 
ease. The application was followed, in a few 
hours, by so great prostration, as almost to de- 



54 RESPONSES ON THE 

stroy life, and was succeeded by long continued 
lameness and debility. 

To the above cases, I will add one, which, I 
think, is from the works of Doctor Good, A 
mother having a child affected with the scald- 
head, was advised by a neighboring lady to apply 
an ointment made of Scotch snuff rubbed up 
with lard. She followed the advice, and, in a 
few hours, the child was seized with convulsions, 
and died. 

As to your fourth interrogatory, whether a 
moderate use of tobacco shortens life, I think 
the answer may be safely left to the judicious 
reader, whenever he is made acquainted with a 
sufficient number and variety of facts from which 
to draw a conclusion. 

And now, my dear Sir, in relation to the work 
in which you are engaged, I am happy to offer 
you a word of encouragement. A second edition 
of the first volume of your " Mysteries," as I 
understand, having been called for, I hope you 



USE OF TOBACCO. 55 

will not despondingly say, "I have labored in 
vain." For, although not one in a hundred 
readers is yet reached by your efforts, the im- 
mense field of labor may call forth many helpers, 
when they see that your positions are demonstra- 
ble, that appalling and undeniable facts are nu- 
merous, arfti only require the time and toil to 
collect them. Moreover, the subjects of this 
" artificial passion," are not so nearly bereft of 
reason as those who use the intoxicating cup, 
and the number is not inconsiderable of those 
who are desirous of knowing the truth. Besides, 
this subject is better understood than it once was, 
and the injurious tendencies of the habit are be- 
coming more generally known and acknowledged. 
Time was when such ignorance of the legitimate 
effects of drunkenness existed, that individuals 
who died from that cause have been supposed to 
perish by some extraordinary visitation, or some 
unknown disease. I have recently been made 
acquainted with the fact of the death of an intem- 
perate man some forty years ago, whose symptoms 
of disease are now recollected to have been those 
of mania a potu; yet it was thought by all who 



56 RESPONSES ON THE 

were conversant with the circumstances of the 
case at the time, that he died possessed of the 
devil. In like manner there is the greatest rea- 
son to believe that when the public mind becomes 
enlightened with facts, and with just deductions 
from them, the legitimate effects of the use of 
tobacco, which are not yet properly understood, 
will then be recognised by physicians and others, 
so that the young will be early made acquainted 
with the perils they encounter when they com- 
mence this pernicious habit, and physicians will 
seldom be found so stupid as to recommend this 
remedy for the cure of the heart-burn, or any 
other symptom of dyspepsia. 

Should your zeal or philanthropy lead you to 
publish more on this subject, might it not be well, 
after arranging, in suitable divisions, the facts al- 
ready at hand, together with others that may be 
procured, to exhibit the great variety of phases 
in which this subject may affect the social inter- 
ests of community, and investigate the causes of 
the more frequent relapses of those who attempt 
to abandon this habit; than of those who discon- 



USE OF TOBACCO. 57 

tinue the use of intoxicating drinks ? Perhaps, 
as in the efforts in the cause of temperance, it 
may be useful to address separately, the different 
classes of society, as the literary, the sedentary, 
and the idle, in one class ; the laborer and the 
mechanic in another ; and the young, whose hope 
and safety consist mainly in prevention, in another. 

To promote reformation on this subject, it will 
be necessary that the same application of princi- 
ples and facts should be made to private interests, 
as has been done in the temperance cause. The 
interest of marine insurance companies in the 
temperance reform has been acknowledged, in 
some instances, by a bonus granted to temper- 
ance vessels, and in others, by a reduced pre- 
mium. That the business of Life Assurance is 
acknowledged to be equally affected by the ques- 
tion of temperance appears evident from the in- 
quiries uniformly made before a policy is given. 
In the list of questions which are always required 
to be answered by the physician and friend of the 
applicant, is this one : " Is he sober or temper- 
ate?" In order to his success, it is necessary 



58 RESPONSES ON THE 

that an affirmative answer should be returned. 
But the interest which Life Assurance Compa- 
nies have in the tobacco reformation has never 
yet been pointed out, or practically recognised. 
If, even now, we take the facts already published 
and known, and the propositions thus clearly de- 
monstrated in relation to the effects of tobacco 
in shortening human life, it may well be asked 
what propriety there is in insuring the life of a 
user of tobacco at the same rate as that of one who 
habitually uses nothing that tends to shorten life. 
The opinion is expressed by the Hon. John Q. 
Adams, who has been no mean observer of men 
and things, and who examines every subject on 
which he gives an opinion with the discerning 
eye of a philosopher, that the average of human 
life is shortened five years by the use of tobacco. 
Now, as we cannot believe that more than one 
half of our race are in the habitual use of this 
drug, the above estimate applied to an individual 
using tobacco, shows that his life is shortened ten 
years. This is no contemptible item in estimat- 
ing the value of life at a given age. The impor- 
tance of this subject will be more clearly brought 
home to the bosom of the individual who takes a 



USE OF TOBACCO. 59 

policy from one of the Life Companies formed on 
the mutual plan, as, in that case, the man who is 
insured is also an insurer of the lives of others. 
If, therefore, no preference is given to the one 
who is free from the habit in question, over him 
who is addicted to it, the former has just reason 
to complain ; for he, in the first place, pays a 
higher premium, and, in the next, his losses are 
greater than necessary. Thus it would seem 
that the penalty of this vicious habit is inflicted 
upon the abstemious equally with the vicious, in 
the same manner as the expenses attendant upon 
the pauperism and crime of the inebriate are 
visited upon the temperate, in the shape of city 
and county taxes. 

In fine, the more this subject is examined, the 
more difficult will it be for the physician to give 
a negative answer to the following question con- 
tained in the list above referred to, respecting 
the applicant for life assurance, who uses to- 
bacco, " Do you know any circumstance relative 
to this applicant tending to shorten life ?" But, 
lest you should deem my suggestions ultra, or 



60 RESPONSES ON THE 

ill-timed, I close, by offering you my best wishes 
for the success of your. cause. 
1 am, dear Sir, 

Most cordially yours, 

Amatus Robbins. 
Rev. B. I. Lane. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 61 



n. 



LETTER FROM THE HONORABLE JUDGE 
A. J. PARKER. 

Albany, April 13, 1846. 

Rev. B. I. Lane, 

Dear Sir, — I have read with great satisfac- 
tion your publication entitled, " The Mysteries of 
Tobacco," and believe it will be productive of 
great good, in inducing many persons to abandon 
a very loathsome and pernicious practice. I 
cheerfully comply with your request to add my 
own testimony to the stock of valuable informa- 
tion you have already gathered on this subject. 

As to my " personal experience," I state that 
I was in the habit of smoking and chewing to- 
bacco many years, and it is now between six and 
seven years since I discontinued its use. The 
benefits I have enjoyed from its discontinuance, 
in improved health, are incalculable, and can 
only be appreciated by one, who, like myself, 



62 RESPONSES ON THE 

has found himself suddenly relieved from a prac- 
tice which he had long felt was gradually making 
inroads upon a strong constitution, depressing the 
spirits, and controlling the will, by its fascinating 
and almost irresistible influence. 

I have observed particularly the effects of to- 
bacco upon students and members of the legal 
profession, and I am satisfied its habitual use has 
done more injury to them, personally and profes- 
sionally, than can be justly ascribed to intoxicat- 
ing drinks. I believe that persons engaged in 
pursuits requiring active exercise in the open air, 
may use tobacco with less injury, because such 
exercise, and the bracing effects of the fresh air, 
counteract, in some degree, its deleterious effects ; 
but to the student or the lawyer, confined by his 
duties to a sedentary life in his office, or in the 
impure air of a court-room, the use of tobacco 
is most destructive in its consequences. It ope- 
rates immediately upon the nervous system, and 
produces timidity and want of self-reliance that 
effectually preclude the young practitioner from 
venturing upon the higher walks of his profes- 
sion. He is alarmed at the sound of his own 



USE OF TOBACCO. 63 

voice in court, and distrusting his own ability, 
soon becomes satisfied with relying on others to 
argue the causes of his clients, and sinks into 
the mere attorney. This nervousness will be 
found to exist in persons of all ages, in the pro- 
fession, who use tobacco habitually. I have 
found but few exceptions. It is felt when the 
bell summons the frightened smoker and tobacco 
chewer to the court-house, to try the suits he has 
deliberately commenced and prepared during the 
previous vacation ; and it is exhibited by the shak- 
ing hand in holding the affidavit, which, with a 
trembling voice is read in court, to put off the 
trial of a cause. To such counsellors, the ap- 
proach of a circuit, which should be greeted with 
feelings of professional pride and anticipated 
pleasure, is dreaded as presenting a formidable 
ordeal, they would gladly avoid. For the truth 
of this, I appeal confidently to the experience of 
those members of the profession who feel these 
effects on themselves, and witness them in others. 
If they have doubts as to the cause of these ef- 
fects, they can be fully, but perhaps unwillingly 
satisfied in regard to it, by discontinuing the use 

of tobacco for six months. 

6* 



64 RESPONSES ON THE 

I have alluded to the influence of tobacco upon 
professional pursuits. It is more properly the pro- 
vince of the physician to describe particularly its 
effects on the bodily health. I will only say ge- 
nerally, that in a person of sedentary habits I am 
sure its use rarely fails to impair, if it does not 
destroy the most vigorous constitution. Inde- 
pendent of the evils growing out of its unnatural 
influence on the nerves, from its stimulating 
effect, and the absorption of the poison into the 
system from contact, and the inhaling of smoke 
into the lungs, the loss of saliva by expectora- 
tion cannot fail to derange the functions of the 
body, and be productive of disease in multiplied 
forms of suffering. Headache, indigestion, pal- 
pitation of the heart, and extreme lassitude, are 
almost constantly complained of by the user of 
tobacco, who is unwilling to be satisfied of the 
true cause of his malady. Perhaps he feels that 
he has not the moral courage and force of char- 
acter to shake off the chains that bind him, and 
free himself from a degrading servitude, and is 
therefore ashamed to admit the truth, of which he 
is already more than half convinced. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 65 

I regret that I have not time to write you more 
fully on this subject. It is one of great import- 
ance to the public, and to me of great interest ; 
but being now engaged in a laborious circuit, I 
have only found a few moments of relief from 
official duty, to say thus much in answer to your 
inquiry as to my personal experience and obser- 
vation. 

I am, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

Amasa J. Parker. 



66 RESPONSES ON THE 



III. 



LETTER FROM THE HON. MITCHELL 
SANFORD. 

Catskill, April 4, 1846. 
Rev. B. I. Lane, 

Dear Sir, — Your letter of inquiry as to my 
experience in the use of tobacco is received, and 
I hasten to answer it. In early life from a Fa- 
ther's example, I commenced its use. I am not 
aware that I suffered from its use materially and 
manifestly till I went to college, studied hard, 
and used it more freely, as persons of studious 
habits and sedentary life are apt to do. I then 
suffered greatly from a disordered stomach, and 
a bilious habit, and I became so dizzy, that I 
could hardly stand up to recite. I entered the 
profession of law, and practised with some suc- 
cess for twelve or fourteen years, the last part of 
the time in the city of New York. The above 
symptoms all increased. The dyspepsia, with all 
its horrid accompaniments, was added to the list 



USE OF TOBACCO. 67 

of miserable ills with which I was afflicted. I 
never summed up a cause to a jury, or addressed 
a public audience at this period, but I had serious, 
and (I now have no doubt) well-founded appre- 
hensions, that I should fall down dead before 
them. My tongue was constantly furred and 
coated so thick with foul matter, from a disor- 
dered and feverish stomach, that I scraped it off 
every morning. I was satisfied, as most persons 
are, that it injured me, but its dreadful extent I 
did not know, and from time to time left off its 
use, when nature, true to herself, threw off the 
oppressive load. But with returning health, re- 
turned also in greater strength this unnatural ap- 
petite, till I soon again found myself bound in 
the iron fetters of this dreadful habit, till at last, 
worn out with the conflict, I resolved never to 
quit its use again. From this time my health 
and strength greatly and gradually declined, my 
nervous system deranged, so that I was compelled 
to, and did abandon my profession, and went into 
the country on a farm, and I had such a horror 
of a court-house, that for several years I did not 
enter one 



68 RESPONSES ON THE 

In eighteen hundred and forty, I was elected 
to the Senate of the State of New York. My 
nervous system was so disordered, my general 
health so bad, that I was unable to discharge the 
duties of the station, and was compelled to retire 
from a position suited to my taste, profession and 
age. 

Time passed on, and the changes which it 
wrought rendered it necessary that I should re- 
turn to a profession which I supposed I had aban- 
doned for ever. I found myself entirely unable 
to endure its excitement, as the trial of a single 
cause would prostrate my strength for a week. 
In this hopeless and miserable condition, with 
health broken down, spirits greatly depressed, 
and hope departing, I casually mentioned to the 
Hon. A. J. Parker now circuit Judge, that I 
must abandon my profession entirely. He re- 
plied with great confidence and kindness, that if 
I would follow his prescription, he would cure 
me entirely ; but, says he, you will not — you will 
not ; — you will die first. I told him I would do 
anything, no matter what, to be restored ; at the 
same time saying, that the thing was impossible. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 69 

His simple prescription was, " abandon the use of 
tobacco, and I will guarantee your cure. I know 
it all, — I have felt it all, — I have loved the weed 
well, — but I have abandoned it forever, and the 
victory is gained, when you will to gain it." I 
engaged upon the spot never to use it again, 
and from that day to this, I have never desired to 
use it. 

Three years have already passed, and I can 
say with the blind man, I was sick, I am well ; I 
was weak, I am strong ; I was dejected, I am full 
of hope ; the world was dark, it is now bright. 
In a word, I am entirely cured, disease has fled 
and nature triumphed over its ravages, and for 
all the gold tobacco ever got, I would not return 
to its use ; and when I see a pale-faced slender 
man, whose constitution I know cannot endure 
the wear and tear of this slow, sure poison, I feel 
for him the same deep commiseration, as I would 
to see him put a knife to his throat with suicidal 
intent ; the one is as certain death as the other ; 
and thousands upon thousands I doubt not have 
gone down to an early grave by disease engen- 
dered by this habit. 



70 RESPONSES ON THE 

This letter is already too long, but indeed I 
never know where to stop when upon this sub- 
ject, for I have suffered more than enough to 
counterbalance all the pleasure that all the to- 
bacco users in all time ever enjoyed. It is the 
bane, the curse of professional, studious men. It 
operates directly upon the nervous system, and 
prostrates it. 

Thus, you see, Sir, my experience in the use 
of tobacco has been sad, very sad. It has turned 
into bitterness the healthful current of my life, 
sowed the seeds of disease through my whole 
system, and brought me down from the summit 
of high health and robust strength to the very 
borders of the grave, and, under the kind provi- 
dence of God, I am indebted to the timely warn- 
ing and kind advice of Judge Parker, for life pre- 
served and health restored, with all its attendant 
blessings to myself and family. I owe it all to 
him ; and as I can cancel the mighty obligation in 
no other way, I lose no opportunity of warning 
others, of this fatal rock on which I was well 
nigh wrecked. Tobacco is a more deadly poi- 
son than alcohol, and is cousin german To it in 



USE OF TOBACCO. 71 

all its miseries, and far worse in its filth. And 
when the fair ones of the land shall sing their 
song of triumph and victory, as they will, over 
the destruction of both these foes to their well . 
being, they can say as of old, " Alcohol has slain 
its thousands," and Tobacco " its ten thousands." 
I rejoice, Sir, that you are engaged in this cause. 
You have done good and will do more. 
I am, truly, 

Your obedient servant, 

Mitchell Sanford. 



72 RESPONSES ON THE 



IV. 



LETTER FROM REV. S. MILLER, D.D., 

Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Govern- 
ment in the Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J. 

Princeton, December 27, 1845. 

My dear Sir : 

I have just received your circular requesting 
from me some information respecting the habitual 
use of Tobacco. I wish it were in my power to 
give you the information which you desire, in more 
minute detail, and to a more ample amount than 
I am able to furnish. I will venture to say, that 
you can call upon no one more willing than my- 
self to join in a crusade against that vile narcotic, 
which has destroyed the health and the lives of so 
many thousands, and undermined the morals of so 
many of its slaves. 

In my own person I never had mucn experi- 
ence of the mischiefs of this noxious, and nau- 
seous stimulant. For, in early life, I became so 



USE OF TOBACCO. 73 

deeply convinced of its injurious tendency, and 
of its morbid and revolting effects, that I have 
never been in the habit of using it in any form , 
and I have brought up a large family of children 
under such impressions respecting it, that they 
have all, without exception, abhorred and avoided 
its use. 

It ought to be known to all who are tempted 
to begin the use of tobacco, that the progress of 
habit hi the use of this article, is the same as in 
the use of opium, of ardent spirits, and of all in- 
toxicating liquors. One step of indulgence leads 
to another, and another. No one can promise 
himself to remain master of his own appetite. 
I have known a few persons, indeed, who have 
continued, for many years, to exercise neatness, 
caution, and moderation, in the use of this stim- 
ulant, and who seemed never to be enslaved by 
it ; but these have been few indeed. I have 
known many more, who, insensibly, became such 
miserable slaves to this habit, that they could 
hardly endure existence, when deprived of their 
customary indulgence, and were altogether unfit 
for any comfortable exercise of mind, or body. 



74 RESPONSES ON THE 

The physical mischiefs wrought on the human 
frame by the habitual use of Tobacco, are too 
numerous to be recounted in such a communica- 
tion as this. It may be said, "their name is Le- 
gion, for they are many." I have known it most 
strikingly to interfere with healthful and comfort- 
able digestion ; and as the relations of this func- 
tion of the human stomach to health and disease 
are so numerous and intimate, no one can estimate 
the mischievous influence it is continually exert- 
ing on every part of the body. It causes a pre- 
ternatural flow and waste of the saliva, which is 
so important an element in the functions of the 
stomach. I have known chewing, smoking, and 
snuffing in a multitude of cases, to operate in- 
juriously on the nervous system ; producing the 
most distressing tremors, permanent and incura- 
ble nervous derangement, and in some aggravated 
cases, epilepsy, palsy, and even apoplexy. 

Many people imagine that chewing and smok- 
ing tobacco have a favorable effect on the mind ; 
and hence, many students have been betrayed 
into these habits, in the hope of being aided in 
their intellectual tasks. Brandy, wine, and opium 



USE OF TOBACCO. 75 

have all been resorted to for the same purpose. 
But while they have brought with them some 
temporary aid, that aid has generally proved in- 
sidious and delusive. They are all followed by 
a corresponding depression. I have known some 
smokers and chewers, when, by particular circum- 
stances, deprived of their customary stimulus, in 
the cigar or the quid, thrown, by the privation, 
into a state of torture which rendered them total- 
ly unfit for any mental or bodily exercise, — nay, 
objects of compassion to all around them. Sure- 
ly this is a costly auxiliary in study, which no 
wise man would be willing to purchase at so dear 
a rate. 

But further, the use, and especially the exces 
sive use of tobacco, is apt to betray into habits of 
tippling. Both smoking and chewing are apt to 
induce thirst; — thirst, of course, leads to drink- 
ing ; and as cold water will ever prove an insipid 
beverage to those whose mouth and fauces are in 
a state of excitement, something more stimulating 
will naturally be sought. Thus close is the con- 
nection between tobacco and drunkenness. 
7 # 



76 RESPONSES ON THE 

Nor is the habitual use of snuff much less in- 
jurious. I have been acquainted with many- 
cases in which its morbid influence on the ner- 
vous system was manifest and deplorable ; — in 
which the voice was greatly affected by it ; and 
the complexion very sensibly injured. 

On the whole, from the observation of a long 
life, I cannot doubt, that in nine cases out often, 
the habitual use of tobacco, does, in some mea- 
sure, impair health and shorten life. I know that 
this will be denied by multitudes to whom it just- 
ly applies. Many whom I have warned and en- 
treated on this subject, insisted that they took no 
more " than did them good." Yet their friends 
were convinced that they were totally deceived. 

I will only add, that the bearing of this habit 
on good manners, and the comfort of social inter- 
course, is more serious than is commonly ima- 
gined. Some gentlemen, and very many of the 
other sex, are not only incommoded by the pre- 
sence and the habits of the devotees of tobacco, 
but absolutely made sick by them. What real 
gentleman would be willing to be a nuisance in 



USE OF TOBACCO. 77 

every parlor, and in every public and private 
conveyance which he entered ? 

On all these accounts, I exhort the young and 
the old with whom I have any influence, to guard 
carefully against the use of tobacco in any form. 
I say to them with emphasis, and earnestness, 
" Touch not, taste not, handle not." And when 
I see boys and young men chewing their quid, or 
smoking their cigars, I say to myself — these dear 
young people are under infatuated training ; and 
are probably on the road to temporal and eternal 
ruin. 

I am, dear Sir, with the best wishes for the 
usefulness of your Book, 

Yours, respectfully, 

Samuel Miller. 



78 RESPONSES ON THE 



LETTER FROM C. A. LEE, M.D., 

Professor of Materia Medica in Geneva Medical College. 

New-York, January 17, 1846. 

Rev. B. I. Lane, 

Dear Sir, — I shall reply in brief to your 
circular this day received : 

I. I have witnessed numerous cases of disease 
brought on by the use of tobacco. In order of 
frequency they are, 1. Derangements of the di- 
gestive organs ; 2. Of the nervous system ; 3. 
Of the circulatory system ; 4. Of the respiratory. 

Some of the worst cases of dyspepsia I have 
ever attended, owed their origin to the use of 
tobacco. This might be inferred from the fact 
that a portion of the poison is swallowed, and 
comes in contact with the delicate nervous ex- 
pansion of the stomach ; and when smoked, the 
nervous energy, on which healthy digestion de- 



TJSE OF TOBACCO. 79 

pends, is weakened, from the absorption of the 
deleterious principle into the blood, and its being 
brought in contact with every portion of nervous 
matter in the system. I am inclined to attribute 
a very large proportion of the causes of derange- 
ment of the digestive organs, that we so frequently 
meet with in our country, to the common, and ex- 
cessive use of tobacco. 

Nervous diseases I have also often found occa- 
sioned by the same article. It seems to relax and 
unhinge, as it were, the nervous energy ; making 
man cowardly, effeminate, and excitable, and in 
many instances, probably, laying the foundation 
of insanity. 

Diseases of the heart, I do not question, often 
arise from the use of tobacco. I have frequently 
met with functional diseases of this organ, at- 
tended with irregular pulse, palpitations, a sense 
of sinking at the precordial region, &c, brought 
on by chewing or smoking this article, as proved 
by all the symptoms speedily vanishing, soon after 
its use was discontinued, and it can scarcely ad- 
mit of doubt, that organic disease of the heart 



80 RESPONSES ON THE 

will often result from the same cause. I could 
relate numerous cases of this kind, some of 
which occurred among clergymen, were it neces- 
sary — but they are precluded by my limits. 

II. I have occasionally smoked a mild cigar for 
its medicinal effects, and found it not a disagree- 
able anodyne, in an irritable state of the nervous 
system. I apprehend, however, that the frequent 
resort to the " weed" as a medicine, would, like 
alcoholic liquors, rather aggravate the condition 
for which it is remedially employed. Its use, 
like that of other medicinal agents, should be 
left entirely to the judgment of an enlightened 
and sober physician. 

III. I have seen no death immediately resulting 
from the use of tobacco ; though I cannot doubt 
that I have seen many cases prove fatal, the foun- 
dation of which was laid by this article. 

IV. I do think that its continued use shortens 
life ; for I do not believe that man is so consti- 
tuted, that he can subject himself with impunity 
to the habitual influence of any poisonous agent. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 81 

The system may, to a certain extent, become 
habituated to the effects of powerful deleterious 
causes, so that no positive injurious consequences 
are visible, as inhaling malaria ; — but it will be 
found, on examination, that the average duration 
of life is always shortened. Enlightened physi- 
ology rejects this doctrine of the innocuousness 
of poisons in small doses, although it may be en- 
dorsed by appetite, self-indulgence, and absurd 
theory. 

Your humble servant, 

Charles A. Lee. 



82 RESPONSES ON THE 



VI. 



LETTER FROMARAD JOY, ESQ. 

Ovid, N. Y., March 6, 1846. 
Dear Sir : 

Absence to Washington, for eleven weeks, has 
prevented an earlier reply to your circular of the 
20th of November. I am highly pleased with 
the work that you are engaged in. When on 
my way home, in New York, I purchased the 
" Mysteries of Tobacco." I am a member of an 
anti-tobacco society of Geneva, and have long 
been. In answer to your inquiries, 

I. I knew a married woman of forty-five, or 
fifty, who was a toper at smoking a pipe. It so 
enfeebled her, as to prevent her from doing much 
labor for years, and finally brought her to her bed, 
and confined her altogether. She became so en- 
feebled as not to be able to get to the fire to light 
her own pipe ; and her friends, believing that she 
was killing herself, as it were, by inches, came 



USE OF TOBACCO. 83 

to the conclusion not to do it for her. She was 
consequently forced to stop smoking. After a 
week or two, she began to recover, and believing 
with her friends, that it injured her, she resolved 
to abandon the pipe. She soon became a healthy- 
woman, and continued so for many years, but never 
more used her pipe. 

II. I am happy to say that I never got so low 
as to use tobacco in any form. 

III. I am fully of the opinion that tobacco, in 
any quantity, is a slow poison, undermines health, 
and shortens life. I knew a man who had used 
tobacco in the form of chewing, for thirty years. 
He was a thin, lank, and spare man, and never 
very well. He resolved to quit tobacco, and did 
so, at once. His tongue became parched up, 
and so dry as to injure his speech. He made 
use of a stone of the size of his former quid, 
which aided the flow of saliva. He soon recov- 
ed from these disagreeable effects, his health im- 
proved weekly, and for the next ten years, he was 
able to do, and did do, more labor than he had 
for the last twenty years. He gained in flesh 

8 



84 RESPONSES ON THE 

twenty or thirty pounds ; and he informed me 
that he enjoyed life a thousand times better than 
he had for many years. He attributed it ail to 
the discontinuance of the use of tobacco. 
I am, Sir, respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

Arad Joy. 






USE OF TOBACCO. 85 



VII. 



LETTER FROM MOSES LONG, M.D. 

Rochester, December 19, 1845. 
Rev. B. I. Lane. 

Dear Sir, — Your circular of the 20th ult., 
has been received ; and in answer to your inqui- 
ries, I would say, 

I. That I have prescribed for numerous cases 
of disease, which, unquestionably, had their ori- 
gin in, or were greatly aggravated by the habitual 
use of tobacco. 

II. I have had thorough personal experience 
of its effects, and can speak with confidence. 
At the age of about sixteen years, I very un- 
wisely commenced chewing and smoking tobac- 
co, and used it unremittingly, for fourteen years. 
Previous to this, my health, in the main, had been 
very good — I had a remarkably steady hand ; but 



86 RESPONSES ON THE 

subsequently, it became tremulous, so much so, at 
times, as to render it difficult even to write legibly. 
As I continued its use, its deleterious effects were 
still more thoroughly developed, by emaciation, 
loss of appetite, indigestion, vertigo, and epilepsy. 
These afflictive maladies seemed to call loudly for 
reformation. So I attempted to relinquish its use 
gradually, till it could be omitted entirely without 
inconvenience. But after several ineffectual trials, 
finding the stubbornness of my long-continued ha- 
bits so unyielding, I found it necessary to adopt 
a more sure course, that of omitting it entirely 
at once. I therefore laid it aside fourteen years, 
when, by way of experiment, I used it for one 
day only, which was sufficient to convince me 
that I could soon make it as welcome a guest as 
ever. From that day, nearly fifteen years have 
elapsed (twenty-nine in all) since I discontinued 
its use. The consequence was a decided im- 
provement in my general health, and the most 
alarming symptoms soon subsided, and eventual- 
ly passed off entirely. 

III. I have seen diseases terminate fatally 
which I had reason to believe had their origin in 



USE OF TOBACCO. 87 

the use of tobacco. The most immediate and 
alarming effects I ever witnessed was that of the 
application of tobacco juice to cure a ring-worm. 
I communicated this case to Professor Reuben D. 
Mussey, then lecturing at Bowdoin College, Mass. 
It may be found in his publication on tobacco, as 
follows, viz : 

" TOBACCO JUICE FOR THE CURE OF RING-WORM." 

" Doctor M. Long, of Warner, N. H., writes 
me under date of April 26, 1834, that, on the 
6th of May, 1825, he was consulted by Mrs F., 
on account of her little daughter, L. F., then five 
years old, who had a small ring-worm, scarcely 
three-fourths of an inch in diameter, situated upon 
the root of the nose. Her object was to ascer- 
tain the Doctor's opinion, as to the propriety of 
making a local application of tobacco in the case. 
He objected to it as an exceedingly hazardous 
measure ; and, to impress his opinion more fully, 
related a case, a record of which he had seen, 
in which a father destroyed the life of his little 
son, by the use of tobacco spittle upon an erup- 
tion or humor of the head. 
8* 



88 RESPONSES ON THE 

" Immediately after the Dr. left the house, the 
mother besmeared the tip of her finger with a little 
of the strong juice from the grand-mother's tobac- 
co pipe, and proceeded to apply it to the ring- 
worm, remarking, that ' if it should strike to the 
stomach, it must go through the nose.' The in- 
stant the mother's finger touched the part affected, 
the eyes of the little patient were rolled up in their 
sockets, she sallied back, and in the act of falling 
was caught by the alarmed mother. The part was 
immediately washed with cold water, with a view 
to dislodge the poison. But this was to no pur- 
pose, for the jaws were already firmly locked 
together, and the patient was in a senseless and 
apparently dying state. The Doctor, who had 
stopped three-fourths of a mile distant, to see a 
patient, was presently called in. * The symp- 
toms were coldness of the extremities, no per- 
ceptible pulse at the wrists, the jaws set together, 
deep insensibility, the countenance deathly.' He 
succeeded in opening the jaws, so as to admit the 
administration of the spirits of ammonia and lav- 
ender ; frictions were employed, and every thing 
done, which, at the time, was thought likely to 



1 



USE OF TOBACCO. 89 

promote resuscitation, but it was an hour and a 
half before the little patient was so far recovered 
as to be able to speak. 

" Till this time," says Dr. L., " the child had 
been robust and healthy, never having had but 
one illness that required medical advice ; but, 
since the tobacco experiment, she has been con- 
tinually feeble and sickly. The first four or five 
years after this terrible operation, she was subject 
to fainting fits every three or four weeks, some- 
times lasting from twelve to twenty-four hours ; 
and many times, in those attacks, her life ap- 
peared to be in imminent danger. Within the 
last three or four years, those turns have been 
less severe." 

Since communicating the above case to Dr. 
Mussey, I have been called to prescribe for the 
same patient for Menorrhagia, induced probably 
by general debility. 

IV. In consequence of the enervating effects 
of tobacco upon the system, the disturbance of 
the secretions, and the animal functions general- 



90 RESPONSES ON THE 

ly, I am of opinion, that even a continued mode- 
rate use of it will inevitably shorten life. 
Very respectfully, Sir, 

Your obedient servant, 

Moses Long. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 91 



VIII. 



LETTER FROM FREDERIC MORGAN, M.D. 

Colchester, Conn., Janaury 17, 1846. 
Rev. B. I. Lane. 

Dear Sir, — A few weeks ago, I received 
your circular containing several queries, relating 
to the use of tobacco, to which I will now most 
cheerfully return you an answer. 

I. In reply to your first inquiry : I have seen 
many cases of dyspepsia in persons somewhat ad- 
vanced in life, or of feeble constitution, brought 
on, as I believe, by the use of tobacco. 

II. in reply to your second inquiry, I can say 
I have had much experience in the use of this 
article. I began with it when I was about seven- 
teen years old, and continued to use it twenty-one 
years, or until I was thirty-eight years of age. 
During the greater part of this time, I made way 
with more than a pound of tobacco a month, and 



92 RESPONSES ON THE 

although I was often troubled with cardialgy, 
nausea, and anorexy, such was ray infatuation 
with regard to this matter, that I did not suppose 
it was doing me any injury. But in the autumn 
of 1829, partly to induce a friend who lived near 
me to quit tobacco-chewing, whose health I be- 
lieved was seriously impaired by it, and partly 
from a conviction that I could not, on temperance 
principles, justify the use of this narcotic, any 
more than that of alcohol, I resolved to cut the 
acquaintance of tobacco at once, and forever, 
and, by the grace of God, I have kept my reso- 
lution. What I endured while passing through 
the weaning process, I will not attempt to de- 
scribe, — thus much, however, I will say, that at 
no time did I feel as bad as I had often felt when 
my stock of tobacco was exhausted, and I was so 
situated that I could not, for a time, obtain a new 
supply. 

The uneasiness which I experienced, while 
undergoing, so to speak, the transition, gradually 
subsided, and after about two months, was en- 
tirely gone. I soon gained about ten pounds in 
weight, which I have never since lost. In the 



USE OF TOBACCO. 93 

course of the last eight years of my use of to- 
bacco, I had several attacks of rheumatism, and 
after the first, which was very severe, I was not 
clear of this complaint for any length of time, 
during the whole period. But since T ceased to 
use this narcotic, I have not had a particle of 
rheumatism, and have enjoyed uniformly good 
health — much better than at any previous period 
of my life. 

III. In answer to your third inquiry, I am not 
prepared to say that I have seen any case of 
death which could be directly traced to the use 
of tobacco. 

IV. In answer to the fourth inquiry — I enter- 
tain no doubt, that even the moderate use of this 
article, (to say nothing of the excessive use,) by 
impairing the general health, often shortens hu- 
man life. 

With the best wishes for your success in ex- 
posing and preventing the evils which result from 
the use of this filthy, and as I believe, noxious 
article, and with the hope that the rising genera- 



94 RESPONSES ON THE 

tion in our country, will think and act more wise- 
ly on this subject than their predecessors. 
I am your most obedient 

And humble servant, 

Frederic Morgan. 






USE OF TOBACCO. 95 



IX, 



EXTRACT 

OF A LETTER FROM W. HOOKER, M.D. 

Norwich, Conn., January 10, 1846. 
Dear Sir: 

Your letter was mislaid, but I hope that my 
reply, if it be worth anything to you, will not be 
too late. 

I do not call to mind any cases of disease 
evidently produced by tobacco alone, but I have 
seen many cases of chronic disease, in producing 
which I thought it quite clear tobacco had consi- 
derable influence. 

I do think that the continued moderate use of 
tobacco by a healthy person shortens life. I base 
this opinion not upon definite facts, but upon that 
observation from day to day which the physician 
exercises in regard to the effects of agents upon 
9 



96 RESPONSES ON THE 

the human constitution, and which, though indefi- 
nite, makes up a large part of his experience. 

Among the cases that have come under my 
notice illustrating the deleterious effects of to- 
bacco, I will mention one related to me by a 
clerical friend. He said that he was once for 
many years, in the habitual and enormous use of 
tobacco. He became convinced that it was the 
cause of his ill health, and resolved to leave it 
off. He did so, and the change was so great, 
that, for a month, he was scarcely able to do any 
thing ; but after that his health became perfectly 
good, and has remained so ever since. 
Yours, &c, 

W. Hooker. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 97 



X. 



LETTER FROM E. C. DELAVAN, ESQ, 

Albany, December 10, 1845. 

My Dear Sir : 

I have your note of the 24th November. In 
reply to your various questions I have to state : 



h „ 



T. I have known of a great many persons who 
e become much diseased by the use of tobacco. 



II. I have some slight personal knowledge of 
the effects of this poisonous and disgusting weed. 
When about twelve years old, on seeing gentle- 
men use tobacco, I was anxious to become a 
gentleman too, and as speedily as possible. So 
I purchased a yard of what was called the pig- 
tail, and commenced chewing it, as I walked, or 
rather strutted through the streets of Albany. I 
had not walked over a mile before I became so 
deadly sick that I crept under a shed, where I 
remained several hours, before I could regain 



i 



» 



98 RESPONSES ON THE 

strength sufficient to return home. I made a 
subsequent attempt to become a gentleman on 
cigars, but was equally unsuccessful. 

III. I have frequently heard physicians say 
that they had known cases of death from the use 
of tobacco. I have no doubt that fifty thousand 
persons annually die, prematurely by many years, 
from the use of this destructive plant. 

I look upon the use of tobacco, in health, ex- 
actly in the same light, in a moral point of view, 
as I do the use of alcoholic poisons. An 
have no more doubt that even what is called i 
moderate use of tobacco shortens life, than I have 
that the moderate use of rum shortens life. 
I am truly yours, 

Edward C. Delavan. 




USE OF TOBACCO. 99 



XI. 



LETTER FROM THE HON. H. J. REDFIELD. 

Batavia, December, 1, 1845. 
Rev B. I. Lane. 

Dear Sir, — Your circular of the 20th ult., 
was duly received. A continued pressure of 
business has prevented an earlier reply. 

In answer to your questions I have to state : 

I. I have witnessed many cases of disease 
produced, as I believe, by the use of tobacco. 



i . 




II. I have had a long and sad personal expe- 
pence of its injurious effects upon my constitu- 
tion and health, having been in the daily use of 
tobacco for more than twenty-five years. During 
this period, I experienced, at times, excessive de- 
bility and nervous prostration. I was, moreover, 
subject to very painful bilious attacks — usually 

twice a year. These attacks usually confined 
9* 



100 RESPONSES ON THE 

me several days, and required the attendance of 
a physician. I abandoned entirely the use of 
tobacco nearly three years ago. My health has 
since been excellent — have been entirely exempt 
from bilious attacks, and weigh about twenty 
pounds more than I did when in the use of this 
pernicious weed. 

III. I cannot say, with entire certainty, that I 
have witnessed any instance of death resulting 
from the use of tobacco. 

IV. I have no doubt that its continued mode- 
rate use, by a healthy person, does shorten life. 
Its continued use for many years, will undoubt- 
edly affect injuriously the strongest constitution. 
Its use benefits no one, injures all, and destroys 
many. I need not say that it is exceedingly poi- 
sonous, and destructive of animal life generally. 
It is in every respect a pernicious weed. Lands 
cultivated for bread, or for any thing necessary 
for the subsistence of man, may, by proper care, 
be kept in a state of perpetual fertility. But the 
culture of tobacco makes barren the soil upon 
which it is raised. It is exceedingly difficult, if 



USE OF TOBACCO. 101 

not impossible, to restore the fertility of lands, 
which have, for any considerable length of time, 
been used for the culture of tobacco. 
Very respectfully yours, 

Heman J. Redfield 



w 



i 
4 



102 RESPONSES ON THE 



XII. 



LETTER FROM MOSES TAGGORT, ESQ. 

Baiavia, December 11, 1845. 

Dear Sir : 

Not having sufficient personal knowledge of 
the deleterious effects of tobacco upon the human 
system, I took the liberty to request Dr. Gauson 
to answer the several interrogatories contained in 
your circular of the 20th ult., addressed to me. 

Personally I can state that I was an habitual 
tobacco-chewer from February, 1823, to Decem- 
ber, 1835, and from that time have totally ab- 
stained from its use. I used it (in my own esti- 
mation) moderately, rarely exceeding one small 
paper a week ; and never supposed I experi- 
enced any injurious effects from it, until I ceased 
using it. I then found a perceptible improve- 
ment in my health, and am now convinced that 
its use was injurious to me. 






USE OF TOBACCO. 103 

I have heard of one case of death from the 
use of tobacco, and have strong suspicions that 
one other person whom T knew, died in conse- 
quence of its use. 

Your obedient servant, 

M. Taggort. 



i 



104 RESPONSES ON THE 



XIII. 



LETTER FROM HOLTON GAUSON, M.D, 

Batavia, December 8, 1845. 
Dear Sir : 

In your circular of the 20th ult., addressed to 
Moses Taggort, Esq., of this place, I find a clas- 
sification of four interrogatives, relating to the 
effects of tobacco on the human system. In 
complying with the request that " a brief answer 
is desired," I will proceed at once to respond to 
the first interrogation. 

During the eleven years of my practice as a 
physician, I have treated several cases of bilious 
colic, the exciting cause of which I could trace 
directly or indirectly to the habitual use of this 
poisonous drug. In a conversation with the 
Hon. Heman J. Redfield a few days since, he 
assured me that having relinquished the use of 
tobacco for the last three years, he had avoided 



USE OF TOBACCO. 105 

severe attacks of colic, to which he had been 
previously liable. 

Besides colic, I have known many cases of 
dyspepsia, sore throats, and inveterate nervous 
difficulties, produced by it. 

In my reply to the second question, I would 
mention that for a few years previous to the 4th 
of November, 1843, I was in the daily habit of 
smoking more or less cigars. The active pro- 
perties of tobacco exerted a powerful and delete- 
rious influence on the liver, and greatly deranged 
all the digestive organs. Determining to the head, 
it at times produced overpowering vertigo. Act- 
ing locally on the mucous surface of the mouth, 
and the enamel of the teeth, it inflamed the one 
and deranged the other. Its baneful influence 
upon the nerves, I have as yet scarcely recovered 
from. As a cure to this troublesome and perni- 
cious habit, I am indebted to a sea voyage across 
the Atlantic. 

In reply to your last inquiry, I can give a de- 
cidedly affirmative answer. It is conceded by 



106 RESPONSES ON THE 

intelligent medical men, that in persons of a pe- 
culiar constitution, tobacco engenders a variety 
of diseases which abridge life by many years. 
Respectfully yours, 

Holton Gauson. 



\ 



USE OF TOBACCO, 107 



XIV. 



LETTER FROM REV. L. MERCEREAU. 

West Troy, February 17, 1846. 

Dear Sir : 

In answer to your request that I would relate 
my experience in the use of tobacco, permit me 
to state, that in relation to its use as a luxury, I 
am able to say but little, as I have very seldom 
attempted to use it ; and whenever I have, it in- 
variably produced an indescribably disagreeable 
sickness. 

And its effect on my constitution, when used 
as a medicine, is no less powerful, deleterious, 
and disagreeable. To show its wonderful medi- 
cinal properties, I will state a fact, as one fact 
especially in relation to human physiology, is 
better than a thousand theories. Some years 
since, I was attacked with inflammatory rheuma- 
tism, which finally located itself in my left shoul- 
der. The pain was severe, and my suffering 
10 



108 RESPONSES ON THE 

considerable. While in this condition, one of 
my kind and sympathising neighbors called to 
see me, and advised that a large leaf taken di- 
rectly from the green stalk of the tobacco plant, 
be wetted and applied to the part affected. I 
complied with the advice. The article was pro- 
cured, prepared and applied. In a few minutes 
I fell into a profound sleep. How long I thus 
lay is not known — perhaps one hour. When 
my friends observed me, I was in an uncon- 
scious, but convulsed state. They were very 
much alarmed, and supposed me to be dying, 
being ignorant of the cause of my condition ; for 
they thought not of the poisonous influence of to- 
bacco. At this crisis, our family physician pro- 
videntially called in — looked on me, and said I 
was poisoned. He removed the tobacco leaf, 
and administered to my relief. After some days 
I recovered. Such was its effect on me, that my 
physician affirmed, that had the application been 
continued a little longer, it would have caused my 
death. Wishing you great success in your noble 
enterprize, believe me, dear Sir, 

Most respectfully, yours, 

Lawrence Mercereau. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 109 



XV. 



LETTER FROM JOSEPH SPEED, M.D. 

Carolina, N. Y., December, 25, 1845. 

Dear Sir : 

I have just received yours of the 20th ult., on 
the subject of tobacco. 

In reply to your first question, I say that I have 
no doubt that I have. 

To the second — With sorrow I have to tell 
you that I used tobacco by chewing and smoking 
between forty-five and fifty years, and with great 
injury to my constitution. For the last twenty 
years of using it, I was dyspeptic ; and can say 
with truth, I think, that, for that time, I was not 
once sleepy or hungry. I usually lay as much 
as two hours, after going to bed at night, before 
I could sleep, and the minute before I got to 
sleep, I was as wide awake as I am now, and 
was unconscious of any sleepy feeling at all. If 



X10 RESPONSES ON THE 

I gassed the usual time of eating, instead of get- 
ting hungry, I got sick at my stomach, or had the 
head-ache, and sometimes hoth. Soon after leav- 
ing off the use of tobacco, my appetite returned as 
strong as in my youth, and sleepiness with it, so 
that I could get to sleep as soon as most people, 
very soon after going to bed. Since leaving the 
use of tobacco, which is now fifteen years, I have 
enioyed better health than any fifteen years of my 
life before. I have very seldom indeed an ache 
or a pain, or sickness of any kind ; and except- 
ing my having had the influenza twice in the 
time, I have scarcely had a cold worth calling a 
cold. Now nearly seventy-three years old, 1 leel 
none of the infirmities of age, except clumsiness. 
But perhaps it is proper I should add, that with 
ray tobacco, I threw away alcoholic drinks, of 
every kind, as also spices, pickles, short-cakes, 
and desserts of every description ; and I put no- 
thing into my stomach that I think ought not to 
g0 there : and great has been my reward. It * 
the imprudences of youth that entail so many in- 
firmities on old age. 

To your third inquiry, I will not speak posi- 



USE OF TOBACCO. Ill 

tively, but I believe, it has been the death of a 
great many. 

Fourth — I have no doubt that its continued 
moderate use does shorten life, that it brings on 
innumerable fatal diseases, and always aggravates 
those brought on by other causes. 

With great respect, and thanks for the interest 
you take in this cause, 

I am most respectfully yours, 

Joseph Speed. 
Rev. B. I. Lane. 



10* 



112 RESPONSES ON THE 



XVI. 



LETTER FROM REV. ROBERT ALLYN, 

Wesleyan Academy, ) 

Wilbraham, Mass., Jan. 17, 1846. \ 

Rev. B. I. Lane. 

Dear Sir, — I have only a moment of time 
to devote to a reply to your circular of Nov. 20. 

I think I have seen cases of dyspepsia, evident- 
ly produced by the immoderate use of tobacco. 

1 can cheerfully and thankfully answer that I 
have no personal experience of its effects. And 
I consider it one of God's greatest mercies, that 
surrounded as I have been by smokers and 
chewers, he has not suffered me to fall into a 
habit the most slovenly and disgusting. 

I have no doubt but that the continual drain 
on the physical system for saliva, to be thrown 
off in spittle, does almost invariably shorten life. 



USE OF TOBACCO. , 113 

The laws of man's being compel me to such a 
conclusion ; and then experience, I think, coin- 
cides with this view. I could write much more 
in my zeal against tobacco in any form; but bre- 
vity says stop. 

I am yours respectfully, 

Robert Allyn. 



114 RESPONSES ON THE 



XVII. 



LETTER FROM REV. J. HOLDICH, D.D., 

Professor ot Moral Science, etc., in the Wesleyan Univer- 
sity, Middletown. Conn. 

Middletown, January 2, 1846. 
Rev. and Dear Sir : 

Your circular requesting information concern- 
ing the effects of the use of tobacco, was handed 
to me a little more than three weeks ago, after T 
had taken my seat in the stage to leave home. I 
returned the night before last, and take the earli- 
est opportunity to write you a line in reply. The 
unimportance of my answer is such as to make 
me unwilling to trouble you, and I now write 
only to assure you that I am not insensible to the 
value of your undertaking. I am not able from 
actual knowledge or observation, to answer any 
of your questions in the affirmative. I have 
never used tobacco in any way habitually, and 
consider the use of it, whether chewing, snuffing, 
or smoking, especially the two former modes, 



USE OF TOBACCO. 115 

most nauseous and disgusting. Yet I believe, 
that in some few cases, it may be beneficial, but 
to so small an extent, that the world would be 
an immense gainer by its entire abandoment. 
There are few greater practical errors committed 
than retaining a very prevalent evil, for the sake 
of a few incidental, and perhaps unimportant ad- 
vantages. This error gives support to the use of 
intoxicating liquors, horse-racing, lotteries, thea- 
trical amusements, &c. 

I have not been able to say with certainty that 
I have known any case of death produced by 
this cause ; though I have known several in- 
stances in which tobacco was believed to have 
greatly contributed to an enfeebled and emaciated 
state of the physical system. One case, within 
my knowledge, that comes nearest to your pur- 
pose is the following : A young man of my ac- 
quaintance, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, about 
twenty-five years ago, consulted a physician as to 
the cause of his great debility, and the derange- 
ment of his digestive functions. The physician 
inquired if he did not use tobacco. On answer- 
ing in the affirmative, and being assured that this 



116 RESPONSES ON THE 

was tne chief cause of his difficulty, he immedi- 
ately discharged from his mouth an immense 
quid, determining from that time, to use the arti- 
cle no more. His heath, in consequence, very 
soon began to improve. He persevered in his 
resolution for some time with manifest advantage, 
until on receiving a keg of a very fine quality — 
for he was a tobacconist — he was induced to taste 
it, when, like the toper, his habit returned upoi 
him with all its former power. But what the 
final result was, I do not know, as I soon after- 
wards left that part of the country. 
I remain, Sir, 

Your obedient servant, 
Joseph Holdich. 
Rev. B. I. Lane. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 117 



XVIII. 

LETTER FROM REV. ALBERT BARNES. 

Philadelphia, November, 26, 1845. 

Rev. B. I. Lane. 

My dear Sir, — Your favor of the 20th inst. 
came to hand this evening. I would give a brief 
•answer to your questions : 

I. I have not witnessed any cases of disease 
which I could say were evidently produced by 
the use of tobacco. 

II. I have had some considerable personal ex- 
perience of its effects. I used it both in chewing 
and smoking about five years, and in both methods 
quite immoderately. It produced decidedly un- 
happy and deleterious effects on me, making me 
nervous, and producing, such were the quantities 
which I used, almost a constant and distressing 
nausea. I became, now more than twenty years 



118 RESPONSES ON THE 

ago, convinced that it was injurious to me, and 
abandoned the practice at once and forever. I 
have in no way indulged in its use since, and no 
consideration would induce me to do it. I have 
no doubt that I owe much, very much, in regard 
to my health, as well as comfort, to the fact that 
I abandoned it. 

III. I cannot say that I have witnessed any in- 
stances of death resulting from its use, but I have 
been informed, mainly by a physician, an elder in 
my church, of such an instance, in the death of a 
gentleman of distinguished talents. He was from 
the State of Maryland ; was an elder in a Presby- 
terian Church ; was a man of high standing, and 
fine legal attainments ; and died at the age of 
about thirty-five. His death it has always been 
said was caused by the use of tobacco. I knew 
him personally, and from his manner of using it, 
I have no doubt that that was the cause of his 
death. 

JTV. I have not the slightest doubt that its con- 
tinued moderate use, by a healthy person, shor- 
tens life. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 119 

I will add a volunteer remark, that I dttest its 
use most cordially, and am exceedingly annoyed 
by it in any form, and by whomsoever used. 
I am truly yours, 

Albert Barnes. 



11 



120 RESPONSES ON THE 



XIX. 

LETTER FROM REV. JOSEPH HURLBURT. 

New London, December 20, 1845. 
Rev. B. I. Lane. 

Dear Sir, — In reply to the several interro- 
gatories addressed to me in your circular, I would 
say to the 

First — That I have witnesseo many cases of 
disease evidently produced by the habitual use 
of tobacco, and particularly among students in 
college. Those of a nervous temperament, or 
those of a constitution inclined to consumption, 
have invariably suffered from the use of tobacco 
in any form. I have known it to produce palpi- 
tation of the heart, vertigo, extreme irritation of 
the stomach, and in some instances, spitting of 
blood — terminating in decline. In short, I have 
known very many injured, but never saw an in- 
stance in which any one was benefitted by the 
use of tobacco. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 121 

To the second question I am happy to say, I 
have no personal experience of its effects, having 
never used it. I am the oldest of six brothers 
grown up to manhood, neither of us ever having 
used tobacco, or our father before us. We are 
all consequently cold water men to the death. I 
say consequently, because I never knew an intem- 
perate man, who was not addicted to the use of 
tobacco in some form, generally to great excess. 

Your third and fourth questions are answered 
generally in my reply to your first. But I will 
add that I have not a doubt, that it shortens life 
in many instances. Sure I am that many clergy- 
men have been laid aside from their Master's 
work, by the use of tobacco, and others con- 
signed to an untimely grave. In short, I can 
truly say, I have contended with this filthy habit, 
(whenever I could with propriety,) from my youth 
up ; and have long considered it, with my friend 
Dr. Cox, " an utter abomination." 

With sentiments of regard and best wishes, 

I am, Sir, 

Yours very respectfully, 

J. HURLBURT. 



122 RESPONSES ON THE 



XX. 

LETTER 

FROM REV. WILLIAM WISNER, D.D. 

Ithaca, November 25, 1845. 
Dear Sir : 

I have just received your circular on the sub- 
ject of tobacco, and, though I am pressed with 
the duties of my office, I have determined to lose 
no time in answering it 

I have not seen your book, though I have read 
the introduction to it by my old friend, Dr. Cox, 
and do greatly rejoice that you have made an 
effort to check an unhealthy, filthy, and universal 
practice. 

In answer to your first question, I would say, 
that I have witnessed many cases where I have 
had no manner of doubt that serious chronic dis- 
eases have been brought on by the use of tobacco. 
I knew two respectable physicians who were well 



USE OF TOBACCO. 123 

satisfied themselves, that they had broken their 
constitutions, and brought themselves to the bor- 
ders of the grave by the use of it. I knew two 
other gentlemen, the one a minister of the gospel, 
who were for years greatly emaciated and troubled 
with a severe cough, with other symptoms of dis- 
eased lungs, who, on being persuaded to give up 
the use of tobacco, both became immediately bet- 
ter, and are now, and have been for many years, 
perfectly healthy men. I know another case of 
a very respectable man, who has told me that he 
knew he was injuring both his body and mind by 
it, but had not resolution to give it up. Another 
still — a minister of the gospel, who was so much 
affected with a determination of blood to the 
head, that he would sometimes, when walking 
the streets, have to sit down on the first thing he 
could find, to keep from falling. This man, after 
giving up the use of the filthy plant for a few 
months, told me that his head had become clear, 
and ceased to trouble him. 

In answer to the second question, I would say 

that though 1 used it myself for eight years, it 

was in the days of my early youth, and my con- 
11* 



124 RESPONSES ON THE 

stitution was then so vigorous that I was not sen- 
sible of any particular effect, except that when 
using it more freely than usual, it would produce 
a temporary pain in my head. 

In answer to the third, I would say that I do 
not feel competent to decide that any case of the 
use of it, which I have seen, has been the imme- 
diate cause of death. 

I would answer the last question decidedly in 
the affirmative. I cannot conceive how it is pos- 
sible that any man can live in the habitual use of 
so deadly a poison, without gradually drying up 
the fountain of life. 

How a Christian can consent to spend his 
Lord's money for an article which most judicious 
medical men believe injurious to both body and 
mind, and w T hich makes him extremely offensive 
to most of those who do not use it, is a question 
which I can only solve by supposing that it blunts 
the moral feelings of the soul, and renders the 
moral perceptions more dull than they would 
otherwise be. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 125 

Who does not know that most of us who do 
not use it are annoyed greatly when we are in 
company of those who do ? But would any con- 
sistent Christian do to others habitually, what he, 
if he could change places with those whom he 
annoys, would not have done to himself, if his 
moral feelings were not impaired ? 

But I must bring my letter to a close, by wish- 
ing you success in your benevolent undertaking, 
and subscribe myself 

Yours, truly, though in haste, 

William Wisner. 
Rev. B. I. Lane. 



126 RESPONSES ON THE 



XXI. 



FROM REV. LEONARD WOODS, D.D., 

Abbot Professor of Christian Theology, in the Theological 
Seminary, Andover. 

Rev. B. I. Lane. 

Dear Sir, — I heartily wish success to every 
effort made to abolish the use of tobacco. There 
are very few young men who come here from the 
colleges, with the habit of using it in any of its 
forms. In past years, I have been called to en- 
counter it often ; and I have urged upon my 
pupils, the hurtful influence of the habit, and 
also how inconsistent and degrading it is for 
Christians, and especially young men preparing 
for the gospel ministry, to be slaves to a mise- 
rable, artificial appetite. 

In reply to your first question, I would say, 
that I have witnessed most evident and hurtful 
effects of tobacco upon health. In one case, a 



USE OF TOBACCO. 127 

young man was affected in his nervous system, 
became depressed, lost the activity of his mind, 
and was nearly insane, from the excessive use of 
tobacco. But as soon as he abandoned the use 
of it, he began to recover, and has been well 
and useful for many years. I have known cases 
of dreadful effects upon the head, and the nerves, 
from snuff-taking. A man is advised to use snuff 
for the benefit of his eyes, or to smoke for the 
benefit of his throat ; and perhaps it may, for a 
short time, be a benefit to him. But if he fol- 
lows it, and forms a habit of using it, it is cer- 
tainly an injury. So a man may be benefitted 
by opium as a medicine ; but who does not 
know that the habitual use is pernicious. I have 
been acquainted with multitudes who have used 
tobacco ; but have seldom known a person who 
has used it freely, without manifest injury. My 
beMef is, that it always tends to evil, and that in 
no instance is there any good resulting from it, 
which can be urged in favor of its habitual use. 
I am sometimes ashamed and astonished to see 
men of fine talents, and excellent characters, 
brought under the dominion of that hateful but 
bewitching weed. How contrary it is to the 



128 RESPONSES ON THE 

precepts of the gospel, which require self-denial, 
and self-government, and the subjugation of the 
bodily appetites to reason and religion ! 

Question second. I have never been in the 
habit of using tobacco in any form. Once when 
I was young, and knew nothing of the danger, I 
was tempted by an old tobacco-chewer to use it ; 
which I did freely and abundantly for a little while. 
In consequence I was suddenly sick and intoxicat- 
ed, and was taken up as dead, and continued sense- 
less, and to all appearance lifeless, for some time. 
The poison was as nearly fatal as it could be, con- 
sistently with remaining life. 

To the third question I can only answer in the 
negative. 

Question fourth. Whatever tends to a pernfl- 
nent injury of health, tends to shorten life. My 
opinion is, that even the moderate use of tobacco 
by healthy persons, has a bad tendency ; and that 
if no sensible injury results from it, it is because 
he possesses a firmness of constitution which re- 
sists the bad influence so far, that its hurtful 



USE OF TOBACCO. 129 

effects do not become visible, just as some men 
seem to be able to withstand the pernicious influ- 
ence of strong drink, or of opium, as long as 
they live. The poison which is fatal to others, 
is not fatal to them. But if certain men can live 
and enjoy health sixty or seventy years, under the 
influence of the habitual use of alcohol, or to- 
bacco, or opium, the same men would doubtless 
have better health, and live longer, and certainly 
better, if free from such habit. 

Permit me to say in conclusion, that one of the 
most powerful reasons which occur to me against 
the use of tobacco, is, the fearful and almost irre- 
sistible strength of the appetite, which the use 
begets. I have known excellent men, and ex- 
cellent ministers, who have been convinced of 
the bad influence of tobacco upon themselves, 
either bodily or mentally ; and have resolved to 
give it up, and have tried to give it up, and tried 
repeatedly, but have found themselves, as they 
said, unable. They have bound themselves with 
a chain which they could not break. No man 
ought to submit to such servitude. I would ra- 
ther be a slave to a fellow-creature than to my- 



130 



RESPONSES ON THE 



self. I would rather be compelled to submit to 
the authority of an unreasonable master, than to 
submit voluntarily to be governed by an unrea- 
sonable and base passion. 

Yours with respect, 

Leonard Woods. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 131 



XXII. 



LETTER 

FROM THOMAS W. BLATCHFORD, M.D. 

Troy, April 13, 1846. 
Rev. B. I. Lane. 

Dear Sir, — In answer to yours of the 2nd 
instant, I have only to say, that I have long viewed 
tobacco as very injurious to the human constitu- 
tion, and, for years, both by precept and example 
I have discountenanced its employment, except 
as a medicine. Commencing when a boy, I was 
for some years greatly addicted to its use. I 
smoked, chewed, and snuffed. My father was a 
great smoker, and I thought it manly thus to imi- 
tate him. When in college in 1811, I was cured 
of chewing by a fellow student giving me tobacco 
with which he had purposely mingled tartar eme- 
tic. I was consequently made exceedingly sick 
for two or three days, but ever after I could not 
endure the taste of tobacco, and have ever since 
eschewed it. I continued to smoke, and occasion- 
ally to snuff, for several years. I found the prac- 
12 



132 RESPONSES ON THE 

tice, however, at times, very inconvenient ; for I 
was frequently called away in haste on profes- 
sional business, immediately after meals, without 
affording me my usual time for smoking ; and 
the want of it, the hankering after it, often dis- 
tressed me so much, not unfrequently even mak- 
ing me sick, that I often wished I could abandon 
the practice forever, but I did not then dream 
that such a thing could be accomplished. But 
there were other inconveniences attending this 
practice, which to me at least made it an up-hill 
business, a dearly bought pleasure. 

I frequently found myself in the company of 
those who were greatly incommoded by the smoke, 
and I occasionally met with some to whom it was 
decidedly injurious, since, if they breathed the 
confined smoky atmosphere for any length of 
time, it almost invariably produced either head- 
ache or vertigo ; and one of these instances oc- 
curred in my own family. Besides, 1 was often 
so circumstanced that there was within reach no 
convenient receptacle provided, where I could 
deposit the plentifully secreted saliva, which I 
was then compelled either to swallow, when I 



USE OF TOBACCO. 13-3 

was invariably made sick, or to deposit it in my 
handkerchief. The material itself had become 
no small item, to say the least, of useless expen- 
diture ; and every little while some important 
duties had to be either suspended or neglected, 
until the pipe or cigar was finished. 

These and such like considerations, more than 
any manifestly injurious consequences to my own 
person, of which I was then sensible, led me 
often and anxiously to ask myself whether, after 
all, there was not some way in which I could 
break the habit without breaking my neck; espe- 
cially as it had never done me any good. I be- 
gan also, seriously to question whether I or any 
one could, with impunity, be in the constant em- 
ployment of so powerful an agent as tobacco, the 
mere want of which made me feel so bad ; and 
the seriousness of this question deepened, as I 
became more and more acquainted with the im- 
portant, the vital relation the brain and nervous 
system sustained to the other organs of the body, 
and the danger attending a wanton interference 
with any portion of the intricate frame-work of 
our constitution. 



134 RESPONSES ON THE 

In this state of mind, I went one morning to 
my barn, (I then resided on Long Island,) to see 
how my hired man, who was engaged in thrashing 
oats, progressed with his work. To my surprise, 
I found him diligently using his flail, and at the 
same time, enveloped in clouds of smoke issuing 
from his lighted pipe. The floor was covered 
with straw. I reproved him in rather an angry 
tone, spoke of the danger of setting my barn on 
fire,* and of the sad consequences which would 
inevitably result. His reply was a severer rebuke 
to me, than my reproof was to him. I had my own 
pipe in my mouth, and I felt the inconsistency of 
my situation very keenly. He replied, " I wont 
set his barn on fire ; master loves to smoke and 
so does Steve." After forbidding him ever again 
to smoke in the barn, and especially in the straw, 



*Note. — The great fire in this city in 1820, in which 
more than one hundred buildings were burned, and pro- 
perty to the amount of half a million of dollars was de- 
stroyed, I am informed, was kindled from a cigar in a barn. 
Two other fires recently occurring in this city, have been 
clearly traced as originating from smoking a pipe. Is it 
not probate that a vast many of the fires so constantly oc- 
curring originate in the same way ? 



USE OF TOBACCO. 135 

I returned to the house, laid down my pipe, and 
from that day (1822) to the present, I have never 
smoked either pipe or cigar. The trial, for a few 
days, was very severe. At times, I felt as if it 
was not possible for me to persevere. I, how- 
ever, was enabled to withstand the temptation, 
and the satisfaction of having overcome so bad a 
habit, rivetted as it had been by years of indul- 
gence, afforded a pleasure which has amply re- 
warded me for all the pain it cost me to accom- 
plish it. 

Since that period, I have given the subject re- 
peated examinations, and I have long been con- 
vinced that so powerful a narcotic, so active a 
poison as tobacco, cannot be habitually taken into 
the system without producing deleterious (though 
for a time perhaps imperceptible) consequences. 
Chewing, smoking, or snuffing, either and all are 
bad, and the only way of accounting for the fact, 
that disease and death do not oftener ensue from 
the practice, is, that the recuperative powers of 
nature ward off the blow. Few individuals are 
aware of the extent to which our constitutions 

are endowed with the power of resisting poisons, 
12* 



136 RESPONSES ON THE 

and repairing injuries. To this power doubtless, 
do the chewer, the smoker, and the snuffer, prin- 
cipally owe it that they are not all themselves the 
demonstration of its immediately poisonous influ- 
ence. That its employment tends to serious dis- 
ease of the brain, I can no more doubt than I can 
my existence. Its influence is so well understood 
by physicians generally, and I myself have so re- 
peatedly seen proofs of its poisoning power, that 
I cannot be mistaken. The case of Mr. Lyman, 
which you have already published in your first 
volume, I was conversant with. I was his phy- 
sician, and can vouch for the truth of what he 
has related ; but I doubt very much whether he 
himself had, or even yet has, any idea of the 
dreadful amount of derangement which the use of 
tobacco had produced, or his near approximation 
to perfectly formed apoplexy. Although he aban- 
doned its use just in time to save his life, still, I 
think he will never recover the degree of health 
he Would have enjoyed had he never been made 
acquainted with that " poisonous weed, 
On which no beast but man will feed."* 

*Note. — The following- fanciful description of the " illu- 
sory influence" of tobacco, was written in 1813, by a con- 



USE OF TOBACCO. 137 

The case of Mr. Lyman, however, is only one 
of several which I could give you, showing con- 



vict in the New York State Prison, to whom I had given a 
cigar. I was then the " Resident Physician" of that insti- 
tution. 

MY CIGAR. 

When not a thought the rnind amusing, 
Or scarce a thought that wastes in air, 

Thro' zig-zags of the brain diffusing 
Its mazy wanderings afar — 

'Tis then I use that poisonous weed, 

On which no beast but man will feed, 
And puff with my cigar. 

And when the mantling bowl elating 

The spirits high, dispelling care, 
A thousand atoms, thoughts creating, 

Dancing like meteors through the air — 
Then 'tis I take extatic pleasure, 
To spread in fumes Virginia's treasure, 

And puff with my cigar. 

Now Fancy, in the smoke that's curling, 

Paints Phaeton in his headlong car : 
Dread Jove is seen his thunders hurling, 

Dealing out horrors, death and war; 
Another puff confounds the gods, 
Alarmed they seek their bright abodes : 

Such wonders rise from my cigar. 

J. B. R. 



138 RESPONSES ON THE 

clusively that in certain constitutions , a tendency 
to apoplectic disease may be the almost inevita- 
ble result of the free, habitual use of tobacco. 
Mr. H s lived about twelve years after an at- 
tack of apoplexy terminating in hemiplegia, and 
after two attempts at suicide, died from strangu- 
lation in a lunatic asylum. Mr. R d lived 

over a year after a similar attack, a helpless par- 
alytic. Mr. L e died of apoplexy after the 

fourth or fifth warning. Mr. L m, Mr. 

W d, Mr. B 1, Mr. B. R d, Mr. 

M r, Mr. B y, Mr. H d, Mr. J. 

H d, Mr. S. H s, Mr. T K, Mr 

Mc e, Mr. M u, Mr. C d, Mr. 

M n, all died apoplectic. In these cases, I 

was either the attending or consulting physician. 
All but two of them, were, I believe, strictly 
temperate in their habits as it regarded intoxicat- 
ing drinks, but all were either great chewers, or 
great smokers, or both. I do not say that tobac- 
co caused the apoplexy of which these men died. 
I only notice the two facts that they all died of 
apoplexy, and all made a free use of tobacco. 

Mr. B d, aged thirty-three, six years since, 

suffered four attacks of apoplexy ; he was a 



USE OF TOBACCO. 139 

great chewer, and he smoked occasionally. He 
quit tobacco, exchanged a sedentary for an active 
life, and now enjoys excellent health. From 
principle, therefore, founded, as I believe, on 
correct observation, I am the decided enemy of 
tobacco, except as a medicinal agent, and am a 
warm, unflinching advocate for a thorough tobacco 
teetotalism. 

I remain, dear Sir, 

Fours sincerely, 
Thomas W. Blatchford. 
Rev. B. I. Lane. 



140 RESPONSES ON THE 



XXIII. 

The following is from a member of the American Society 
of Dental Surgeons. 

Troy, April 8, 1846. 
My Dear Sir : 

After premising that I have had no personal 
experience of the effects of that noxious plant, 
formed rather for the use of the tobacco-worm 
than that of man, I seize this moment hastily to 
reply to one of your questions which seems to be 
addressed to me as a professional man, viz : " Is 
the use of tobacco beneficial to the teeth ?" 

It is my deliberate opinion, after thirteen years 
observation, that the teeth are never benefitted, 
but often injured by its use. The reason why 
many have supposed that tobacco preserves the 
teeth, I think to be this. The caries affecting 
teeth, is more of the nature of an acute disease, 
being altogether more rapid in the early years of 
childhood than subsequently, and from the greater 



USE OF TOBACCO. 141 

delicacy of structure, and superior degree of sen- 
sibility, more liable to be accompanied with attacks 
of pain. When the body has nearly attained its 
growth, and for the most part, in after years, the 
diseases of the teeth assume more of a chronic 
character, the teeth becoming more solid and 
better able to resist those influences that induce 
and accelerate the progress of decay. It is about 
the time of this constitutional change, that most 
boys commence using tobacco ; and as it often 
succeeds in quieting and preventing the tooth- 
ache, and as in some cases, the decay is per- 
ceived to go on more slowly, a favorable opinion 
is formed of its use, and the inference is errone- 
ously drawn that it possesses antiseptic and pro- 
phylactic qualities. Hence it has often been re- 
commended as a preserver of the teeth. But 
many marked instances have been known of very 
rapid decay succeeding the use of tobacco, and 
it strikes me that a physiologist could not be at a 
loss to account for it, especially in those cases 
where great derangement of the functions of the 
digestive organs, a very common result of its use, 
had been caused by it. I am therefore free to 
declare that my opinion must undergo a remark- 



142 RESPONSES ON THE 

able change before I can ever recommend tobac- 
co as a tooth and health preserver. 
Yours, respectfully, 

Horace H. Young. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 143 



XXIV. 

LETTER FROM REV, HENRY WHITE, D.D. 

Professor of Systematic Theology, in the Union Theologi- 
cal Seminary, New York. 

New York, May 4, 1846. 
To Rev. B. I. Lane. 

Dear Brother, — In answer to your enquiries 
relative M to the effects of tobacco on the human 
system" there is much that I might say ; — drawn 
mostly, however, from personal experience, as my 
observation of its effects upon others has not been 
sufficiently particular to justify the formation of 
an opinion in many cases. I have no hesitation, 
however, from what I have seen, in saying that I 
believe fully that the " continued moderate use 
of tobacco impairs health, greatly diminishes 
comfort, and tends to shorten life. I consider it 
both a filthy and a noxious weed, unfit for the 
use of persons of cleanly habits, or who have a 
proper regard to the injunction, " do thyself no 
harm." 

13 



144 RESPONSES ON THE 

I was not addicted to the use of tobacco until 
after I was twenty years old. I fell into the 
practice during my course of study in college, 
as I believe very many do. Its immediate effects 
were from the first very great, producing nausea, 
vertigo, tremulousness, and sometimes profuse 
perspiration, and it was a long time before I could 
use it except with extreme caution, and avoid suf- 
fering. Its more gradual and permanent effects 
I can now see, began early to develop themselves 
in the form of indigestion and hepatic derange- 
ment. 

Being wholly unacquainted with these diseases, 
of course I did not take the alarm, but ascribed 
my sufferings to other causes, and permitted the 
habit to continue and grow upon me. I both 
chewed and smoked ; and I may say as a general 
thing, with a uniformly increasing velocity. For, 
though at times, in consequence of some imme- 
diate suffering from immoderate indulgence, the 
habit was checked, the return to it was with 
greater eagerness. I remember in one instance, 
when in the Theological Seminary, I resolved to 
use none for three months. I avoided it during 



USE OF TOBACCO. 145 

that time, but the day on which the designated 
term ended, I had preparations all made, and sat 
holding my watch as the last hour expired, that 
I might indulge myself with a cigar. 

I was a slave to this evil habit but about six 
years, during which time my health was very 
much broken down — and it is now my firm con- 
viction that no other cause was so active in pro- 
ducing this effect as that of tobacco. I came to 
use it incessantly, except in sleep. It became 
necessary in the morning to prepare my appetite 
for breakfast— after meals to stimulate the powers 
of digestion — in hours of study to wake up the 
power of thought— and even in the performance 
of public duties, as a stimulus to give steadiness 
to the nervous system. Under this course of 
treatment the impairment of my health pro- 
ceeded so rapidly that I was forced to come to 
some stand, and to seek medical advice. I was 
then told that an entire change in respect to this 
habit must take place, to give any fair prospect 
that my health could be restored, or my life long 
preserved. Here ends my fellowship with the 
base drug. This was more than eighteen years 



146 RESPONSES ON THE 

ago. I do not believe I should have lived 
through one year, if I had continued on to use 
it to the extent I then did. But by breaking off 
at once, totally, and forever, by the help of God 
I continue until this time ; and am ready to wit- 
ness both to small and great, saying none other 
things but those that from experience I know to 
be true, that the effects of tobacco on the human 
system, used habitually in any way, are evil, and 
only evil, and that continually. 
With much respect, 

And in haste, I am your Brother, 

Henry White. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 147 



XXV. 



LETTER FROM N. S. S. BEMAN, D.D. 

Troy, N. Y., April 7, 1846. 

My Dear Sir : 

I have received your circular, and duly consi- 
dered the questions you have proposed ; and I 
shall now proceed to make such a reply as my 
knowledge and experience in these matters will 
enable me, and my numerous engagements per- 
mit. I was initiated into " The Mysteries of To- 
bacco 11 when a member of a grammar school, in 
the process of fitting for college. This was in 
Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was fashionable 
among the students to chew or smoke ; and some- 
times they practised both. It would not do for a 
boy who thought himself almost, and wished to 
be quite a man, to be out of the fashion. My 
first experiment was with the pipe, and its effects 
were such that my expectations of climbing to 
eminence in that way, were well nigh prostrated 
for ever. But perseverance in the use, in time, 
13* 



148 RESPONSES ON THE 

accustomed the animal system to the poison. 
Soon after this, not far from the time I entered 
college, I formed the habit of chewing tobacco, 
indulging occasionally in smoking the pipe or 
cigars. But my habit was that of chewing rather 
than smoking. This habit I continued between 
twenty and twenty-one years, with the exception 
of one year during that period. 

While residing in the state of Georgia, where 
almost every body uses the narcotic weed, in 
some form, I was deeply convinced that tobacco 
was adding violence to a pulmonary complaint 
under which I was laboring ; and I sat down one 
morning in the month of May or June, 1814, 
and wrote and placed in my pocket-book, the 
following resolution : " Resolved, that I will use 
no more tobacco, for one year." This stipula- 
tion was strictly kept, and the very day the time 
was out, I returned to my old habit with as fine a 
relish as ever. I attained just what I proposed. 
My object was, not to correct a pernicious prac- 
tice, but to refrain for one year. Purpose was 
the measure of attainment. 



USE OF TOBACCO. 149 

At the time I laid aside the use of tobacco for 
a whole year, my pulmonary complaint was much 
worse than at any other period. My cough was 
distressing, my expectoration of a bad character, 
and my whole frame greatly attenuated with hectic 
fever. My friends generally, and physicians too, 
who had examined my case, thought my disease 
must prove fatal. During the whole of the 
Spring and Summer of 1814, my health general- 
ly was more feeble and precarious, and my pros- 
pects of life darker, than at any other period. 
In the months of July and August, my own con- 
fidence, which had generally been strong in favor 
of a final recovery, was much shaken. Early in 
September I began to mend. My cough subsided, 
my appetite improved, my muscular strength gra- 
dually returned, and after a short excursion into 
the upper country, I felt myself decidedly on the 
gain. In the month of November I wrote, in full, 
a funeral-sermon, for a beloved brother in the min- 
istry who died at my house, on a visit from the low 
country ; and travelled eighty miles, and preached 
that discourse to his bereaved congregation. Till 
many years after these events, I never thought that 
the disuse of tobacco had any connection with the 



150 RESPONSES ON THE 

restoration of my health. If- 1 had, I should not 
have returned to the habit of chewing, at the ex- 
piration of the year. But I am fully persuaded 
now, that my temporary reformation was one of 
the means of saving my life. 

I shall never forget one fact, as illustrating the 
power of habit, and indeed the insidious influence 
of tobacco-chewing, on sedentary and studious men. 
While writing the sermon I have mentioned above, 
the first I had attempted to prepare in this form, 
for one or two years, I detected myself in the 
act of feeling in my pockets, and even picking 
the lint from the corners, when my attention was 
arrested by the singular employment, and I soon 
discovered that I was searching for my tobacco, 
as a stimulus to the power of thought. I had, at 
this time, laid aside the use of it, for at least Jive 
months. Indeed I had ceased to care for it, or 
desire it. But when I applied my mind to the 
business of writing, an employment in which I 
had always used it more freely than at other 
times, I felt myself at a loss for a connected train 
of thought. A student's ideas may be in his pipe, 
->r tobacco-box, or wine cup ! These are bad de- 



USE OF TOBACCO. 151 

positories for them. Mind is half mind, when its 
powers of action depend on any artificial stimulus. 

I continued the use of tobacco till the month 
of August, 1823. The late Dr. Barritt remarked 
to me one day, that the irritation of the throat and 
lungs under which I was suffering, was increased 
by the use of tobacco*; and he advised me to lay 
it aside altogether. I assented to the correctness 
of the doctrine, but thought too little of the ad- 
vice to form any definite purpose on the subject. 
But soon after, on the morning of the 10th of 
August, 1823, while measuring out, from a paper 
of cut tobacco, the accustomed morsel, I thought 
of his remark, I thought of the injury it was work- 
ing to my health, of the degrading character of 
such an unnatural and unmanly habit, and I care- 
fully replaced the intended dose in the paper, and 
with a silent but full purpose never to use another 
particle of the miserable poison ! Two weeks of 
conflict and perseverance saw me a complete vic- 
tor over the pernicious habit. Nothing would now 
induce me to return to it. I consider it next, in 
point of importance, to a conquest achieved over 
the use of alcohol. I was never enslaved, in any 



152 RESPONSES ON THE 

form, by the last named enemy, but I have been 
by the former. They too often go hand in hand 
in the work of human death. 

The effect of laying aside the use of this vile 
weed, has been, in all respects, the most pleasant 
and salutary. My natural taste for food, which 
had been rendered less acute than formerly, by 
the action of the poison upon the delicate tissues 
of nerves which cover the tongue and other parts 
of the mouth, soon returned ; my health became 
better in all respects ; my flesh increased, at least 
by scores of pounds ; and my teeth have been, since 
that period, much less subject to pain and decay. 
I am fully convinced that the common excuses 
which are made for the use of tobacco, are all 
founded in error. It is a poison of such a char- 
acter, that it cannot be habitually used without 
doing violence to the human constitution. I 
would leave it with the physician, as I would 
other poisons, to be employed in the cure of dis- 
ease, if it is ever indicated for such a purpose. 
But I speak of men in health. In such a case, 
in my judgment, it never fails to do injury. 
From its very nature it cannot be used with im- 



USE OF TOBACCO. 153 

punity. A man might just as well use any other 
poison, till his organic instincts are changed by 
habit. Smoking, chewing and snuffing all be- 
long to one category. Bad digestion, head-ache, 
nervous derangement, palpitation of the heart, 
and the decay and loss of teeth, are among the 
ordinary effects, and are almost as sure to follow 
the use, as the habit is to be formed and prac- 
ticed. I am not giving a dissertation on the sub- 
ject, but I am recording the result of my own 
observations. " We speak that we do know, 
and testify that we have seen." 

I nave witnessed the most deplorable effects 
produced by the use of tobacco among students 
in college. It often proves fatal to health, and I 
believe, to life. At an early period, and under 
the influence of sedentary habits, the constitution 
often sinks under it. I should rejoice if its use, 
in every form, were prohibited in every college 
of our land. It is a vice which should be exter- 
minated, by the operation of law, from schools 
of learning. The hand of discipline should be 
applied with rigor to this evil. 



154 RESPONSES ON THE 

I have known many cases of dyspepsia, evi- 
dently caused by smoking and chewing. Indeed 
this is a common and every day effect. Pulmo- 
nary complaints are often superinduced, and 
always aggravated by these habits. Having, for 
many years, suffered under the influence of such 
a disease, I have carefully watched its action in 
these cases ; and I can positively assert that I 
have never known a cough of a critical character 
and of long standing, perfectly eradicated while 
the use of tobacco was continued in any of its 
forms. Such a thing may be, but with my ex- 
perience and observation, I am not prepared 
very readily to believe it. 

In the course of my ministry, I have known 
two cases, in my own congregation, of death, in 
which, I fully believe, the use of tobacco had 
much to do. One was the case of a lady who 
was an inveterate snuffer. Her disease was 
paralysis, somewhat gradual in its progress, sap- 
ping the foundations both of body and mind, and 
finally ending in death. It was the opinion of 
her physician, whose attention I directed to this 
point, that her disease originated in the use of 



USE OF TOBACCO. 155 

snuff. For my own part, I had not the shadow 
of a doubt of this fact. The other was a fatal 
case of asthma, created, as I believe, and cer- 
tainly greatly accelerated in its progress, by the 
three-fold use of this poisonous article, — smoking, 
chewing, and snuffing. I examined these cases, 
for a long time and critically, before I made up 
my mind in relation to them. I know a man 
now in the prime of life, who is probably an in- 
curable paralytic, whose disease, in the opinion 
of his friends, was either caused, or greatly ag- 
gravated, by the excessive use of tobacco. 

But cases are endless. I wonder physicians 
keep silence as they do. The American com- 
munity is full of the victims of tobacco. It is 
hardly less fatal than its grand associate, rum. 
They are true work-fellows in poisoning the in- 
stincts, destroying the health, and degrading the 
nature of man. Tobacco, in every form, ought 
to be excluded from the Church, and banished 
from good society. I hope your labors will do 
much to hasten such a reformation. I confess, 
for one, that I am sick of seeing a smoking or 

tobacco-chewing, as I am, a wine-drinking minis- 
14 



156 RESPONSES ON THE 

ter of the gospel. I am utterly disgusted with 
those little boys, and fops who are endeavoring to 
take broad strides towards gentility and manhood, 
by distending their cheeks with tobacco, and puff- 
ing their cigars at the corners of all the streets. 
These are the forlorn hopes of the coming gene- 
ration. Save us from a race of tobacco-worms ! 
Most respectfully yours, 

N. S. S. Beman. 
Rev. B. I. Lane. 



I 1 II >»1 



RESPONSES 


ON THE USE OF 


TOBACCO. 


BY THE REV. BENJAMIN INGERSOL LANE, 


AUTHOR OF THE "MYSTERIES OP TOBiCC 0," ETC. 


NEW-YORK : 


WILEY AND PUTNAM, 161 BROADWAY. 


1846. 



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